What Was There All Along
by Sallywags
Summary: Max goes into heat, but when this happens she finds herself suddenly attracted to someone she should hate, why is this happening, and what does feline DNA have to do with it? MA Chapter 11 up!
1. Default Chapter

**What Was There All Along**

**Disclaimer:I own nothing except anys OCs.**

**Set shortly after The Berrisford Agenda, typical Max goes into heat plot, kill me now, I can't believe I'm actually doing this but what the hell, its been hanging around my desktop for ages so I figured I'd post, see what people think. Give it a chance.**

Was it just her of had someone turned the heat up in Crash tonight? Was the thought that Max seemed to keep coming back to as she sat laughing with OC and Sketchy, it was almost as if, …nah, she hadn't gone into heat for months. She figured Manticore had to have done something to 'fix' that little defect, besides, she may have been literally burning up, but she wasn't chasing after anything male with a pulse, and god knew there were some fine specimens at Crash tonight, if she was in heat, which she sure as hell wasn't, she wouldn't have been ignoring, say that latino hottie over there by the pool table, yet here she was, not giving him more than a cursory glance.

Though, Max had to admit that tonight, he really wasn't what she was looking for, sure he was cute, but he didn't have… something, that Max needed. 'He isn't an alpha', her subconscious whispered tauntingly. "Where the fuck did that come from?" pondered Max in exasperation, she couldn't deny that it was true, none of the guys in Crash really came up to her standards, but since when did she have standards in heat? And who exactly was she measuring them against? Not Logan, that was for sure, 'Couldn't exactly describe him as an 'alpha',' her treacherous mind supplied, to her growing horror, whatever the hell 'alpha' meant anyway, so who then, and why exactly was she subconsciously searching the crowd for barcodes… for one barcode in particular?

'The best potential mate isn't hear yet,' her subconscious supplied helpfully, once her scan of the surrounding males was complete, not a barcode in sight, and certainly no sign of the one she was looking for.

Max froze just as she was about to take another sip of beer, "OK what the fuck was that?" she panicked, realising exactly what she had just thought, and about who she had just thought it. Her mind sure was playing some weird ass freaky tricks on her tonight, no way would she ever think of Alec like that, she must have been going insane. That was it! She was most definitely loosing it if her mind was having thoughts like that about Alec, the screw up, the eternal thorn in her side, her Manticore breeding partner… "'Alpha' indeed, " she thought scathingly, "no way is Alec an 'alpha', and why do I care anyway?" she finished, panicking slightly at the direction her thoughts were once again taking, she didn't even like him!

Question was, why had Mantiore picked **him **as her breeding partner, was it becausethey were both screw ups, she knew now that he had only just gotten out of psy-ops after the whole fiasco with Ben when she first met him, so was that it? Or did Manticore have another reason for putting them together? Was she meant to be with Alec?

"OK its official the rational part of my brain has taken a vacation!" Max fumed, sighing with exasperation at her thoughts, where exactly had all this stuff with Alec come from, shouldn't she be thinking about Logan right now? She had to strongly curb the urge to smash her head on the table with frustration about the unfairness of her life, she might have had a little more respect for Alec and his past after the thing with Rachel but when exactly did he start invading her thoughts like this?

"You okay boo? Ya lookin' a little spun right now." OC questioned Max gently, apparently some of Max's confusion and frustration had bled onto her face, despite her best efforts to prevent it.

"I'm fine OC." replied Max, willing some cheerfulness into her voice to try and alleviate some of her friends concern, she sounded about as convincing as Alec and his ridiculous ascertation that he was 'always alright'.

"Yeah right," snorted OC derisively, "suga ya look like your burning up right about…", she suddenly stopped her tirade catching Max's eye, panic clear in her expression, clearly having just come to the same conclusion as Max. HEAT. "Shit." She muttered almost inaudibly, though Max, with her transgenic hearing heard her loud and clear, whilst Sketchy remained, as usual, oblivious, turning instead to get some more beer.

"So I'm not imagining it then." thought Max sullenly, "Well that's just great!" she fumed sarcastically, "Could my life get any worse!"

Apparently it could as at that moment Alec entered the bar. Max was facing the wrong direction to see his entrance, but she 'felt' it, though she wasn't sure what 'it' was, 'it' was an extra sensory awareness of something…someone? But what…she was brought back to reality swiftly by OCs next words, which had the proverbial effect of a bucket of ice water over the head.

"Honey you gotta get outta dodge right now." OC stated calmly, "Get back to the apartment, take a long cold shower and lock yourself up 'til this bitch is over. It's a wonder you ain't jumped any poor clueless male yet, god knows there are enough at Crash tonight!" she exclaimed.

Unwittingly OC had confirmed Max's earlier thoughts, why wasn't she trying to jump anything with a Y chromosome right now? It just didn't make any sense, usually in heat she couldn't stop herself, but this time she hadn't even had any sexy dreams, … well, that was debatable, she grudgingly admitted, she had had a fairly steamy dream about Alec last night, but that wasn't so unusual, and she was so deeply in denial about the whole thing that she was deliberately trying to repress the memory of all such dreams, (And God there were a lot of them!), writing them off as delusions of a sexually starved body which couldn't have what it really wanted, _clearly,_ Logan, so was focusing its attention instead on the closest attainable male, it could just as easily have been Sketchy or Normal (Max shuddered, now that was a frightening prospect!), in fact it had gotten to the point where she was trying to avoid sleeping, even more than she usually did.

"I don't know what's going on OC," Max explained, confiding in her friend just how worried she was, "This completely snuck up on me, I only just realised, I mean," she clarified, "with how hot I'm feeling I'm well into it, but I haven't tried to jump anyone yet, what's going on?" Max asked in a tiny, slightly jumpy voice.

"I don't know suga, but we'll figure this bitch out." OC smiled, taking Max's hands, and trying to soothe the stressed out X5.

XXX

Meanwhile at the bar, Sketchy had run into the newly arrived Alec on his beer run, and the two were chatting in a relaxed fashion, or so it would seem to the casual observer, anyone who really knew Alec, not that many did, would have seen just how on edge the X5 was.

XXX

Alec knew that something was up the minute he stepped into Crash, there was something in the air, something familiar, he couldn't quite figure out what exactly it was, but he knew that it was important, he was so distracted, that he was only half listening to what Sketchy was saying, and had subconsciously begun to scan the area for potential threats, that is, until his eyes locked with Max's.

"Shit." exclaimed Alec, too quietly for Sketchy to hear. His spine straightening automatically Alec continued to gaze into Max's chocolate brown eyes with intensity bordering on frightening, even to himself, her eyes were liquid with desire. HEAT.

Max was in heat, and the way she was looking at him was not leaving much to the imagination, she looked like she was ready to pounce, but then again, so did he if what he was feeling was any indication. Her pheromones were completely over whelming, "Well now I know what I could smell earlier!" he thought with irritation, he knew he should have left, the minute he realised that something was up, but it was far too late for that now…

Max was going to kill him when this was all over, but right now, he just couldn't bring himself to care, he knew that he should leave, but he was frozen in place by her gaze, he couldn't move, he was completely entranced by her beauty, not that that was unusual, but that he seemed to be having the same effect on her was exhilarating to say the least.

The eye contact between them was becoming intense to say the least, in fact he had started to block out everything else, as it seemed she had too, it was like nothing in Crash existed except the two of them. He could literally feel the heat and tension radiating between the two of them, and it was almost more than he could stand. He had ceased listening to Sketchy some time ago, as it seemed Max had with OC.

He knew that he shouldn't be doing this, but the rational part of his brain seemed to have completely lost control, for the time being over ridden by more primal instincts and he couldn't help but start to make his way across the floor to Max, single minded in his objective he completely blanked half a dozen people who tried to talk to him, some seriously hot chicks included, he didn't seem to see anything but Max, nor did she see anything but him.

_Mate. _This the one thought was constantly crashing through Alec's head as he made his way to Max, he knew what she wanted, and he wanted to give it to her. _Mate,_ he would be her mate, as he had wanted to be since the first moment he met her, he knew, had always known that this would be the ultimate conclusion of their relationship, they were meant to be, a matched set, even if she didn't want to admit it, everything in him screamed that it was true, and he knew that on some level, she felt it too, which was why she was trying so hard to push him away, to deny the attraction, whilst at the same time using any excuse to touch him, even hitting him, and butting into his life at every turn, growing ever more furious with his somewhat roving eye. As if any of those girls could ever hold a candle to Max, they meant nothing to him, but a guy had to do something with his time, and with Max in such deep denial about their obvious chemistry and still clinging on to the safety of her non relationship with Logan he needed some kind of stress relief or he was going to go insane.

Alec knew that on some level Max had recognised him for what he was, a very desirable potential mate, an X5 'alpha', like her, exactly what her transgenic nature was crying out for, but her conscious mind had rebelled against the idea. She had left Manticore too early to know anything about transgenic relationships, she had absolutely no idea of the intensity of feeling involved, she had only ever been with normals before, and knew nothing about the mating process in transgenics. She had no idea that with her constant touching she had effectively marked him off as hers, Alec's more primal mind realised, what his conscious mind did not yet see, or that he had done the same, and, was therefore probably clueless as to why she had not launched herself at the first available male, she had probably thought that Manticore had managed to 'fix' her heats or something, as if they could ever eliminate that part of transgenic nature!

She didn't get it, this wasn't just about sex, it was about procreation, about bonding, about finding an equal, someone to love her, to protect her, to understand her the way no normal could, someone to give her what she, hungered for, what she craved, not tender caresses or candle light, but blood, union in the most brutal sense of the word, that was what she needed, though she didn't recognise it, yet.

As Alec walked steadily towards his target, Max never stopped eye contact with him, the air between them was now sizzling, absolutely electric, with enough sexual tension between them to run half of America for a week. But unfortunately OC seemed to have now realised what was happening, a look of panic flickering across her face, but she was too late to prevent what was now inevitably going to happen, and Max simply blurred past her when she tried to stop her from trying to jump Alec, similarly Sketchy had now noticed Alec's wandering attention, but although startled by it, he had no idea of what was going on, or why his friend was suddenly ignoring him.

Max had started moving too now, moving towards Alec with the same single-mindedness that he was showing, it was only a matter of time until the two would collide…

It was hard to tell who initiated, but when they were within a few paces of each other, suddenly they both leapt, fusing their lips in a brutal, bruising kiss, Max's legs were around Alec's waist, and Alec's hands were roving under Max's shirt, whilst her hands were tracing the muscle patterns of his back.

The bar meanwhile went completely silent, seemingly rendered speechless at the sight of Max the 'bitch' and Alec the 'ladies man' suddenly going at it on the dance floor, in public, surrounded by Jam Pony employees, who were even more shocked about the strange turn of events than Crash regulars, seeing as they witnessed Max and Alec's spectacular fights on a daily basis. Just what the fuck had happened to make two enemies suddenly want to jump each other's bones?

Sketchy and OC were similarly shocked, Sketchy going so far as to completely drop the entire jug of beer he was carrying, something which even in the most dire cases he generally avoided doing, but even he had his limits, and watching Max and Alec, two of his best friends practically getting it on, on the dance floor was more than he could comprehend, was he missing something really important about this situation? OC meanwhile could guess what was happening, it figured that a male X5 would be hit by heat just as hard as a female, so she couldn't exactly blame either of them, and maybe Max hadn't been throwing herself at anyone else because her cat DNA recognised Alec as the best target, well stranger things had happened! Though OC couldn't help wondering if there was more between Max and Alec than some feline DNA, if that sizzling kiss was anything to go by the two definitely had chemistry!

Meanwhile Alec had become aware of their audience, and still had enough presence of mind to realise that making a scene like this was probably not the best idea, so if they wanted to continue with this little adventure they were better off going back to his apartment, he also had to admit, that with his testosterone levels rocketing in response to Max's pheromones, if he didn't get out of here soon he was going to end up killing the next guy that so much as looked at Max, his _mate, _hmmm, somehow he didn't think that Max was going to particularly like that train of thought much, she would never consciously pick him as her mate, but right now, with his arms full of squirming Max Alec just couldn't bring himself to care.

"Max lets get outta here," Alec finally managed to grunt out, when Max briefly released his lips to mark his neck with her teeth, "Umhmm" Max murmured in seeming agreement, never once stopping in her ministrations to his neck, nipping her sharp incisors over the sensitive skin of his newly exposed collar bone, Alec groaned at her movements, and with renewed purpose tried to manoeuvre them through the curious crowds to his waiting motorbike, without breaking contact with Max, not an easy feat, but he was not an X5 for nothing, and he had been top back at Manticore, so somehow he managed it.

Getting out of Crash however was the easy part, getting back to his apartment, on a motorbike travelling at high speed with an amorous Max and a raging hard on was not, and how he ever managed it without causing a serious traffic accident, or getting stopped by a curious sector cop for indecent exposure he would never know, but somehow he did, making it all the way to his apartment block in one piece. The interesting part now, was getting up the stairs without ripping each other's clothes off, a problem which Max was really not trying to help with, she seemed to have no problem stripping off in the corridor, but Alec, with his territorial instincts kicking in, absolutely refused to let his mate walk around naked in front of a bunch of ordinary males, she was **his**.

Once inside his apartment things really heated up, and clothes were soon discarded in every direction, lost in the feel of skin on skin, biting, blood and endless pleasure, it was mind blowing for both of them, neither one had experienced heat like this before, and it was more than they had ever dreamed of, exhilarating, intoxicating, glorious, it was perfection, two bodies moving as one, perfectly in tune, perfectly aware of the other's needs, and with their stamina, the end was no where in sight…

**You know the drill, please review, all comments are welcome, but try not to flame, I'm well aware how overdone this plot is, I don't need to be told, I'm already in deep denial that I would ever actually post this, it was originally only written for my own amusement, to cure some writers block on my other stories. Anyway please review! Thanks!  
XXX**


	2. Morning After

**What Was There All Along**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except any OCs.**

Three days later Max came back to reality, her heat over, to find herself in bed, extremely comfortable and content, pleasantly boneless and satisfied, a hard male body spooned around her, their legs tangled together, his arm slung over her waist, and her head buried in his shoulder, his breath tickling the sensitive skin of her neck. They were completely naked.

Well her heat encounters had never lasted this long before, though that had more to do with the fact that ordinary humans just couldn't keep up with her, sex with an X5 was definitely an improvement in terms of endurance, she realised guiltily, before giving herself a mental slap for even thinking it!

Suddenly her mind was assaulted with visions of the pas t three days, all of their heated love making, if you could call something so violent, so intense 'making love' and she was over come with intense shame, she had had sex, with Alec… You could say this was an improvement on her previous heats, at least she knew the guy's name this time, but this was Alec, her almost friend, the 'smart' Alec, her Manticore breeding partner…

"Oh shit!" she silently cursed, "and here we have another problem in Max's wonderful fucked up little life!" Protection, they hadn't used any, she had been in heat, and they hadn't used anything, could her life possibly get any worse? She certainly didn't think so.

She wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, but he wasn't awake yet, and she wanted to put off the inevitable confrontation for as long as possible. This wasn't like her previous heats, she couldn't use her usual trick of sneaking out before he woke up, Alec was X5, (something which he had definitely proved last night) and if she even tried to move he would wake up, they were programmed to, so she tried to keep her breathing normal, stay relaxed, hoping not to alert him to the fact that she was awake, that is if he hadn't noticed already. But also, though she would fervently deny it later, even to herself, right now she really didn't want to move from his arms, it felt nice, safe, a feeling she had never had before and wasn't quite ready to let go of, she knew that whatever came looking for them Alec could deal with, he could protect her, unlike virtually every other man she knew, including Logan…

"Crap Logan!" realised Max, "What the hell am I supposed to say to him?" she wondered, trying not to completely freak out, she had just cheated on the guy she loved with a guy who had stopped them from getting the cure to the virus, who had in fact tried to kill both of them, what the hell had she been thinking practically attacking him in Crash. In Crash…

"Oh God!" Max panicked, "what am I going to do!". She could vaguely remember that infamous night at Crash, and she knew that she had been seen draped all over Alec by practically everyone she knew, add to that disappearing for a 3 day sex fest, and she wasn't sure that she would ever be able to safely show her face in public ever again, her life was officially screwed, "Someone up there must really hate me!" she fumed, wanting to scream in frustration at the unfairness of it all, why did everything happen to her? This was all Alec's fault, what the hell did he think he was playing at using her like that! Surely he should have recognised that she was in heat and got the hell out of dodge, instead he had used her, for 3 days, 3 fucking days!

She was going to kill him when he woke up, the cocky arrogant asshole, what did he think he was playing at sleeping when he should have been awake so she could kick his ass! Never mind the fact that with all the exercise of the past 3 days he could probably use the rest, and that she now had a definitive answer for whether or not she could beat Alec in a fight, namely 'no', considering, in all the acrobatics of the last 3 days though she may have given as good as she got, she was no longer under any illusions of who was stronger, he had most definitely been in control for most of it, and most sickeningly of all, it brought a thrill of excitement to her just thinking about the fact, it was official, she definitely needed her head examining!

She didn't know what the hell she had been thinking during her heat, but lying there, waiting for Alec to wake up she was remembering everything in Technicolor, including… something so weird she'd rather just forget it, but, he bit her, a love bite, but before he did, he said, _mine,_ as though she were his possession or something, and worst of all, she had agreed with him, said, _yours,_ whatever that meant, "Whatever!" Max thought derisively, she was not about to dwell on any heat induced insanity, whatever the hell it was, she wasn't going to think about it, ever again, if she could help it.

XXX

It was at this point that Alec then began to wake up, for a moment he didn't remember what had happened, but then he realised that he was wrapped around a deliciously warm body, feeling content and utterly satisfied, he knew that something was up, he **never **did the whole morning after awkwardness scene, so what exactly was going on, and why was he still here?

He cracked open an eye, wondering what exactly was going on, and came face to face with a head of shiny ebony hair, the owner of which was snuggled contentedly into his shoulder. MAX.

"Oh shit, heat!" Alec thought, trying to stem the panic as it all came flooding back, Max was going to kill him, somehow she was definitely gonna find a way to blame this on him, and he was really not looking forward to the inevitable explosion, she was gonna kick his ass, and though he could have easily stopped her from doing so, like the whipped little idiot he was he would probably just take it.

"So you're awake then?" Max's voice cut into Alec's frantic musings, she sounded pissed, not a good sign at all, and right now Alec was so tired that he really did not feel like getting into a fight with her, "Just perfect!" Alec thought, typical, 3 days of mind blowing sex later, and she had still failed to loosen up, it was official Max was a lost cause, and if he had any sense of self preservation he would start running now, before the bitch really started to lay into him. But strangely Max was still snuggled into his side and had made no move to go anywhere, yet, was this a good sign, or not? God he was so whipped, normally he could care less about the female psyche, but Max was different, and much as it pained him to admit it, he did care about her, even when she was being a self-righteous bitch.

"Yeah I'm awake," Alec answered, as noncommittally as possible, propping his head up on his elbow, and risking a look at her, she was certainly angry, but she didn't look as though she was about to take his head off anytime soon, " Maybe the mind blowing sex did do something for her, if only make her too tired to kill me!" Alec thought cockily, trying to stop a grin of pure masculine pride from bursting onto his face, she would most certainly not like that!

"Good then you can help me look for my clothes then." Max snapped angrily, starting on him, just as Alec had predicted she would, getting up to look for her clothes, which were indeed scattered all the way over the apartment, left exactly where they were thrown 3 days ago (taking the sheet with her in typical Max style, as if he hadn't seen everything there was to see before, surely it was a little late for modesty!), "And here we go!" thought Alec snarkily, wondering how long it would be before she got around to blaming him for everything.

"Have you seen my bra?" questioned Max, surprisingly not shouting at him, wordlessly Alec pointed to the top of the wardrobe, where said bra appeared to be hanging, why wasn't she killing him again?

"Thanks." smiled Max, moving to retrieve the garment, and surprisingly throwing his boxers at him, "Shouldn't you be getting dressed too?" she questioned, "I mean I know Normal loves you and all but if you miss 4 days of work in a row the guy might just grow a spine and fire ya."

In shock Alec slipped into the boxers, and joined Max in the surprisingly difficult hunt for clothes, they really had thrown them all over in their hurry to be rid of them, and there were several things, like gloves, wedged in unlikely places.

"Its 7:30," Max stated, surprisingly calmly, looking at her watch, "if we're gonna go to work today, which we'd better if we don't wanna get canned, we'd better get going now, I need to go back to my place to get a change of clothes and grab a shower, so I guess I'll see you later." finished Max, somewhat awkwardly, deliberately not looking him in the eye as she hurriedly pulled on her clothes.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Alec conceded, wondering what the hell was going on, and when exactly she was gonna turn around and start laying into him, and then it hit him, denial, typical Max, she didn't know what to say, so she was falling back to the old standby of saying nothing, well that wasn't gonna work!

"Max," Alec began seriously, "we do need to talk …"

"What's there to talk about," breezed Max, who's eyes were now flickering desperately to the door, clearly planning escape, well Alec wasn't about to let that happen, "I was in heat, and you…" she broke off clearly unsure what to say, and clearly thinking that he had somehow used her, as if he had had a choice in the matter!

"And I reacted to your pheromones." he explained, catching her look of shock and continuing, "You and your little rug rat brothers and sisters missed out on all the fun and games at Manticore when we reached adolescence. First time one of the females went into heat it was carnage, all the guys going crazy reacting to the pheromones she was pumping out, fighting over her, no one knew what had hit them, it was chaos." Catching her eye he continued, hoping to make her realise just how serious this was, "Your lucky you just ran into me at Crash, there are a lot of transgenics around thanks to you, and a lot of them wouldn't have been as nice to you…"

"Nice, you call that nice!" shouted Max clearly incredulous about his ascertations considering how they had just spent the last 3 days.

"Yeah I call that 'nice' Max, considering what another transgenic male could have done to you, whether you like it or not you're vulnerable in heat, you were just lucky it was me," at this Max snorted, "at least I care about you." He finished catching her eye, it appeared Max had nothing to say to that one, and Alec worried, that maybe he had said too much, after all, what was the point in telling her anything like that, when she was so hung up on Logan, and would probably laugh in his face for caring.

"I didn't think of that." admitted Max grudgingly, "I guess I should thank you then." she said snorting derisively at the very thought of doing so, stomping on Alec's heart in the process.

"Yeah you probably should Max, but I'm not about to hold my breath waiting for it." snapped Alec, hurt by what she had just said, as he began to roughly pull on some clean jeans and a grey T-shirt, suddenly needing some fresh air to clear his head, but he couldn't resist a parting shot, after all, what the hell, no one could ever say that he didn't give as good as he got, and old habits died hard, "But I'm just wondering Max, why the hell were you out like that, I mean surely you know better than to be wandering the streets in heat, or are you so deeply in denial that you don't even think of yourself as a transgenic anymore?"

At this Max actually flinched, and to Alec's consternation, he couldn't help but feel guilty as hell about it, he hadn't really meant to get her upset, it was just a knee jerk reaction, self preservation, to stop her from realising how much what she had said had hurt him, he almost wanted to reach over and hold her or something, but realised that she would probably hurt him if he even tried.

"I didn't realise." Max finally admitted in a tiny voice, looking at her feet.

"What?" Alec asked, completely thrown by her admission, how could she not have known, she should have been practically throwing herself at every passing guy, but she hadn't been, she had just been sitting, waiting, for him…? Nahh! Max was way too in denial for even her subconscious to have picked him as a mate, at least on its own, after last night though, there really was no question, they were officially mated, not that Max realised of course, now that could prove to be a problem, but he had claimed her, and she had agreed.

"I was feeling hot, but I hadn't been well...you know," she finally stuttered out, apparently too nervous to say it, ironic considering what they had spent the past few days doing, "I wasn't feeling anything at all 'til you walked in, then it was just bam! And everything went completely to hell!" she shook her head, sitting back on the bed, and dropping her head into her hands in apparent shame, well that was about all Alec could stand, as if this was her fault! It was perfectly natural, nothing to be ashamed of, though having lived half her life among ordinaries who could never understand it and probably thought she was nuts during heat had probably not helped matters. Feeling uncharacteristically tender Alec swept her into a loose hug, shocked to feel tears soaking into his T-shirt, Max never cried!

"Hey, don't cry," he soothed gently, "this isn't your fault," he explained, patiently wiping tears off her cheeks, before catching her eye, and giving her a sincere smile in an effort to cheer her up.

"Why are you not being a jackass?" Max sniffed, apparently confused by his actions.

"A jackass? Should I be Max?" questioned Alec gently.

"I don't know," admitted Max quietly, "You usually are."

"Gee thanks Max." laughed Alec, unsure as to whether to be insulted or not.

"I guess I'd better get going then, OC's probably been freaking out after I ran out like that." she pondered aloud, looking slightly concerned that her friend would have been worried about her and pulling out of Alec's arms to begin pacing the length of the room.

"I think she knows where you are Max." Alec mentioned, trying not to come off irritating but telling her what she needed to know.

"As did everyone else we know probably." Max sighed, looking now completely freaked by the prospect of facing them at work today.

"Look Max I'm…" Alec tried to apologise.

"I know, and as much as I hate to admit it, its really not your fault." Max interrupted, raking a hand through her mused hair, warming his heart more than she could possibly realise with those simple words

"Catch you at work then." she shot out as she moved to leave.

"Yeah," Alec agreed, "and Max," he continued, forcing her to turn back and hold his gaze for an uncomfortable moment, "we still need to talk.", at this she nodded in grudging agreement, probably realising that he wouldn't let her leave if she didn't agree to sort things out with him later, before finally turning to walk out of the bedroom, and off out of the apartment, back to her and OC's place to shower and prepare for the ordeal that would be work.

**So here it is, the next instalment, so loved it, hated it, want me to crawl into a hole and never post again, well review and tell me! (Can't believe I'm actually doing a heat fic, but what the hell, you only live once!)**

**Thanks!**

**XXX**


	3. Jam Pony

**What Was There All Along**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except any OCs.**

**Still can't believe I'm posting this, but here it goes…**

In less than ten minutes from leaving Alec's Max was back home. Fortunately OC wasn't up yet, so Max hoped that maybe she could shower and grab some clothes before OC even woke up, thus avoiding talking about what had happened during the past few days. Max had absolutely no idea what she was gonna say to her friend. What could she say? Sure OC already knew all about heat, but she had never gone through it before, so she could never truly understand what it was like, and how exactly was Max supposed to explain something that she herself didn't understand?

With these depressing thoughts Max made her way to the shower, and enjoyed the feel of the cold water on the skin, hoping to wash away memories of the lips which only a few hours ago had been all over the skin that the water was now caressing, but it was useless, she just couldn't get 'it' out of her mind, she had to hand it to the boy he really knew what he was doing in that department, heat had never been like **that **ever before. She also looked in a mirror to examine the damage, it was blatantly obvious what she had spent the past few days doing, she was literally a walking bruise, covered in scratches bruises and love bites, Alec could hardly be ay better off, and putting the two of them together in a room, she might as well have put a neon sign over head telling people exactly what they had done together, today was gonna suck. Riding her bike all day was gonna hurt like a bitch, everyone would be talking about her, and there was a particularly violent purple love-bite on her neck which she had no hope in hell of being able to cover up. Oh happy day!

Finally realising that trying to wash away the memories was futile Max crept out of the shower, hoping to still manage to avoid her roommate, no such luck. It appeared that OC had woken up and started making coffee while Max was distracted by memories of Alec in the shower.

"Morning boo," chirped OC far too happily, "I see ya finally back then." OC smirked knowingly, making Max blush furiously, at the idea that her friend knew exactly what she had spent the last few days doing.

"Yeah I'm back." admitted Max shyly, staring at her feet.

"So you gonna tell OC what happened boo?" she questioned kindly.

"Don't know what there is to say," confessed Max, "I mean you saw what happened at Crash and I'm sure you can guess the rest…" she trailed off, uncertain of what to say.

"Yeah I guess I can," admitted OC, "but damn boo 3 days, say what you want about your boy but he sure got stamina!" she finished, grinning wickedly, causing Max to laugh.

"That he does!" admitted Max, still laughing and feeling slightly better about this fiasco if her best friend could laugh about it so easily, accepting the cup of coffee that OC was offering gratefully.

"So ya not mad at him for taking advantage then?" questioned OC curiously.

"It wasn't his fault." defended Max, prompting a disbelieving artfully raised eyebrow from OC.

"Wanna run that one past me again suga," questioned OC, genuinely puzzled by Max's defence of Alec, why wasn't her friend wanting to kill him? "You were in heat and he…"

"Got caught by the pheromones I was giving off, its not like he had any more choice than I did OC." Max explained, surprisingly calmly.

"Damn boo that is some fucked up shit, those folks at Manticore got a lot to answer for." fumed OC, feeling genuinely sorry for her transgenic friends, and vaguely murderous towards the lab geeks that created them.

"Damn straight!" concurred Max angrily, "but now there is no way I can blame Alec for this fucking mess.", she sighed looking suddenly very young and lost, causing OC to swiftly embrace her, in an effort to comfort her friend, "And oh God, what about Logan!" panicked Max, seemingly only now remembering the guy she was supposedly in love with, "Has he been looking for me? What did you say to him?" Max fired the questions at OC quickly, freaking out, and trying to gauge quickly how much Logan knew about what had happened.

"Relax boo, breathe," ordered OC, hoping to get Max out of panic mode, and only continuing when she saw Max make a visible effort to do what she had ordered her to, "Logan called looking for you a few times, but OC told him that you was out of town doing a job with Alec, figured I should try and explain why you were both gone."

"Did he believe you?" questioned Max, trying to force the panic our of her voice by sheer force of will.

"I think so." admitted OC thoughtfully, "Did he try paging you or phoning Alec?" she questioned.

"Yeah, I think so." admitted Max, vaguely remembering beeps and ringing at various points during her 3 days locked in a room with Alec, it was foggy but she was sure that she remembered hearing it, though at the time she hadn't much cared, and she had yet to actually check her pager, having more important things weighing on her mind.

"Will anyone else have told him anything?" questioned Max, frightened by the prospect, there had certainly been enough witnesses for the story to have got back to him…

"You mean like Asha?" OC questioned, to which Max inclined her head in agreement, "Don't worry boo, she was out of town the past few days, no way she could have heard anything, let alone told Logan about it," comforted OC, "but ya know ya gonna have to tell him yourself boo.", at this Max dropped her head onto OC's shoulder, realising her friend was right, and trying not to cry at the prospect of that conversation, couldn't she just pretend this was all a bad dream?

"We'll figure this out boo, everything'll be alright boo, you'll see." comforted OC, holding her distraught friend.

"I'm not sure it will OC," confessed Max, brokenly, "we didn't use any,.. you know.." she stuttered shyly.

"Ya worried you could be pregnant." finished OC quietly, feeling even more sorry for her clearly frightened friend.

"Its pretty much a certainty OC." sobbed Max, failing to stem the tears now, leaving OC to comfort her completely shell shocked friend, what was Max gonna do now?

They stayed that way for a few minutes, 'til, Max had stopped sobbing, but then, realising that she needed to get going if she wasn't gonna loose her job, Max pulled herself together, and hurried off to get changed for work, leaving a very concerned OC in her wake.

XXX

At work things were even worse than Max expected, the whole room going silent the minute she entered the building, 45 minutes late as usual, Normal was seemingly the only one who refused to believe the rumours about her and his 'golden boy' and was the only one treating her normally.

"And what time do you call this Missy-miss!" he shouted angrily, "You're all of, oh, 45 minutes late," he stated angrily, gesturing to his watch for emphasis, "and you haven't been in since Monday! I hope you've brought a nice doctor's note to explain this or I might just have to fire your ungrateful slacking ass!" he sniped, just as Max had predicted he would, it was official, her day could not get any worse! Wrong again!

XXX

"Hey Normal why don't you lay off." growled Alec, it wasn't a request, it was an order, and something in Normal recognised it as such, he was now looking disturbingly antsy, and though determined to hold his ground something in him seemed to recognise Alec as a dangerous predator, and it was right.

Alec had just walked in the door to be greeted by the scene of Normal laying into Max, as per usual, however what was not usual was his reaction to it, it was making him angrier by the second, no one talked to his mate like that! But that wasn't all, something was different about her, her scent it was slightly different, different hormones… Then it hit him, Max was pregnant, and if Normal didn't back down in the next 30 seconds Alec was about an inch away from snapping his neck like a twig for threatening them.

OC seemingly scenting danger stepped in at this point, and invented some wild story about someone back 'home' dying, and Max being so grief stricken that she got drunk at Crash that night, before leaving with Alec to go to the funeral, it sounded ridiculous but people, including Normal appeared to be buying it, so he was more than grateful to OC for bailing them out, and stopping him from killing the boss, so he sent her a thankful smile, to which she nodded as she turned to pull a stunned Max off to work.

It was then that Alec really noticed how many people were staring at him, he felt like he was on display in a zoo or something, like being back at Manticore, and it was making him really uncomfortable. Apparently most people had been at Crash during his and Max's heated encounter, and were apparently still intensely curious about it. "Just perfect!" he thought furiously, walking to his locker and trying to ignore the stares, this day could not get much worse, he was still waiting for Max to kill him when she figured out that not only had she mated with him but was also pregnant by him, she was going to be furious.

At this point Sketchy chose to make an appearance, overjoyed that his buddy was back at work, enthusiastically clapping him on the shoulder, accidentally jarring the scratch marks that Max had left and causing Alec to visibly flinch, though Sketchy completely missed it, he was soon demanding all the gory details of how Max and Alec hooked up and complaining that Alec had never mentioned it to him before.

Alec had no idea what to say to Sketchy, 'hey I'm a genetically engineered super soldier escaped from a secret government conspiracy, so is Max and ya see well our feline DNA made Max go into heat and I was helpless to resist her pheromones', aside from sounding insane did not exactly have the right ring to it. He shook his head in exasperation trying to convince Sketchy that he had the wrong end of the stick and that there was nothing between him and Max, but Sketchy was having none of it, especially since, he pointed out it was blatantly obvious what they had been doing, seeing as they had matching purple bite marks on their necks, at this Alec tried not to flinch, he had forgotten about that, a leftover from the mating ritual, not that Max realised, so much for denying things, but hey, even Max couldn't say that he hadn't tried!

XXX

Max had felt the moment Alec had entered Jam Pony, she hadn't seen his entrance, but she had felt it, somehow she had just known, like a hyper awareness of where he was, she could still feel him, over by the lockers with Sketchy, even while she was over at the dispatch desk collecting packages with OC. It was weird, but it was strangely nice knowing that he was right there that he had her back, just like always…

She hadn't realised she was even spacing out 'til OC's concerned voice brought her back to reality, she brushed off her friends concern with a shrug and a muttered 'I'm fine' before moving off to find her bike, her mind already off trying to decide how she should approach Logan before she was rudely interrupted by Alec.

Again she felt his approach before she actually saw him, but shrugged it off as her over active imagination, that is until he cleared his throat, and she was forced to look up to find the source of the disturbance, accidentally looking straight into his intense greeny-hazel eyes, something which she avoided doing all morning, knowing that if she looked she'd be floored, he did, though she hated to admit it, have truly gorgeous eyes.

Taking advantage of her momentary inability to speak, Alec grabbed her hand, and ignoring the pointed looks of their co workers, pulled her over behind the lockers.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" snapped Max, regaining her ability to speak, and wrenching her hand from his strong grip, having to also strongly curb the urge to hit him.

"Talking to you without an audience!" snapped Alec, equally harshly, obviously irritated with her attitude, they were both so caught up in their argument that neither saw Sketchy's curious head peer round the corner before retracting very quickly, with an expression like a kicked puppy, upon hearing the clearly irate raised voices. "Or had you forgotten we still had to talk!" continued Alec furiously.

"Well do we have to do it right now, here!" bit back Max, desperately, gesturing towards the lockers that they were currently sequestered behind really not wanting to have this conversation with Alec so soon.

"Might as well," shot back Alec, not missing a beat, probably realising that if he left this up to Max they would never talk things out, "besides," he continued more seriously, "this is kind of important, and we didn't mention it this morning," he paused, almost nervously, although considering that this was Alec Max dismissed that idea as frankly ridiculous, "Max you're pregnant." he stated calmly, whilst Max visibly blanched, sinking to the bench in front of the lockers, and dropping her head into her hands, her worst fear had just been concerned, what exactly was she supposed to do now?

**Hah! Suspense, I'll try to post the next chapter soon so you don't suffer, but a warning for the future, when I said I had this story from a while back, I meant that I have like 8 chapters of it written, after that its in the same position as my other stories, in that I really don't have the time to devote to it at the moment, but fear not, I'll finish it eventually!**

**Anyway you know the drill, review and tell me what you think, good, bad, indifferent, it wouldn't kill ya to drop me a line and tell me!**

**Cheers!**

**XXX**


	4. Logan's Job

**What Was There All Along**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except any OCs.**

Max had still said nothing to his pronouncement, and Alec almost thought that she had gone into shock or something, but finally she spoke again.

"How do you know?" she asked shakily, looking so lost that all he longed to do was wrap her up into his arms and protect her.

"I can smell the change in your hormone levels." he admitted quietly, at this Max took a deep shuddering breath and dropped her head into her hands, clearly trying valiantly not to break down. At this Alec started to move towards her, but Max was having none of it, and within seconds she had jumped to her feet, clearly desperate to leave.

"I've gotta blaze." Max muttered, trying to turn to leave, but finding herself unable to move, as Alec had grabbed her arm.

"I'll come with you." he stated calmly, desperately needing to keep Max and their unborn child in his sights, everyone of his instincts screaming at him to protect her.

"I don't need a body guard Alec." snapped Max, having apparently realised his intentions, she looked really ticked off by his attitude, she clearly had no idea what this was doing to him, and he didn't think that she would be particularly keen to listen to his explanation about transgenic instincts. She probably wouldn't believe him anyway, so sighing in frustration, and trying to curb the urge to follow her he let her leave, before sinking to the bench Max had just vacated and dropping his head into his hands in frustration, what the hell was he supposed to do now?

XXX

After their encounter at Jam Pony Max did everything in her power to avoid Alec, she had absolutely no idea what to say to him, and frankly the whole situation was freaking her out, all she wanted to do was pretend that this wasn't happening, but unfortunately it was, and within a few days she could already feel the morning sickness start to kick in, so she certainly couldn't deny that she was pregnant.

OC picked up that something was wrong right away, and when Max told her that Alec had said she was pregnant OC marched her straight off to the doctors to find out for sure, gently bullying her friend into doing the right thing as she usually did, which was how she found herself waiting outside Dr Carr's office, in the waiting room, for the results of the pregnancy test, OC holding her hand. For once Max was actually nervous enough to actually allow her friend's comforting touch. She had explained to Dr Carr about the heat, and Alec (whilst begging him not to mention anything to Logan), and he had agreed to the test, though warning her that it might be too early to know for sure, he had agreed with Max's assessment that store bought tests might not be conclusive with her unique genes.

Soon the wait was over however when Dr Carr ushered them back into his office, and confirmed what Max already knew, she was indeed pregnant, though not very far along, she tuned out the rest of his speech, not bothering to listen to her options, already knowing that she couldn't kill a child. She had already lost enough of her family, killing Ben had been bad enough, she already had enough blood on her hands without adding her child's blood to them as well. There was no choice, she was keeping this baby and that was all there was to it, that didn't mean that she wasn't terrified, quite the opposite in fact, but that didn't change her mind, so telling the doctor as much she stalked out of the room, and took off on her motor cycle to mull things over on the space needle. It didn't help much, she still had no idea what to do, about Alec or Logan…

Alec was confusing her, she knew that he knew that she was avoiding him, and he seemed to accept this, though he clearly wasn't happy about it, but she knew that he was watching her whether at work or in Crash, he was always there, she could feel him, just out of sight, watching her back, and most strangely it wasn't pissing her off, instead she found it strangely comforting to know that he was there and he was watching her back. She hadn't felt so secure since she was back at Manticore, when she knew that no matter what happened Zack and Erica would protect her, make sure that nothing bad happened to anyone, and she found that his presence soothed her, whilst at the same time electrified her, one glance from him turning her to jelly, she put that reaction down to crazy pregnancy hormones.

She also eventually plucked up the courage to visit Logan, it was about as awkward as the rest of her recent visits, and of course he wanted to know about her trip with Alec, to which all Max had to say was that the job had gone sideways, to which Logan had replied that that was 'typical' of Alec's job's. She had completely avoided the topic of her heat, what was she supposed to say anyway? She knew that she would have to say something eventually, what with the baby and all, but right now denial was so much easier than facing Logan's inevitable hurt, he would never be able to forgive her for this, and she wasn't sure that she could deal with that. He also fortunately had not heard of her and Alec from any other sources either, so there was probably no need to worry on that front if he hadn't heard anything about it by now.

OC was clearly pissed that she had chickened out from telling Logan, but there was absolutely nothing she could do to force Max to tell him, they both knew that it was bound to come out sooner or later, and Max was determined that it would be later, **much** later.

She was confused about what to do, and Alec wasn't helping matters by being so understanding, nice and generally un-Alec like, she had no idea what was going on between them, but it was confusing her, and she didn't like it! She should have been thinking about Logan, the guy she was in love with, not Alec, but she couldn't stop thinking about him, her brain was completely out of her control, and she couldn't stop it, it was like he was a part of her now… or something, she really had no idea what was going on with them at all.

XXX

Meanwhile Alec had been trying to respect Max's apparent wish for him to leave her alone, but he had taken to following her with his eyes at Jam Pony and Crash, he could tell that she knew that he was watching, protecting her and the baby, but she hadn't told him to get lost yet, which was progress, right? She also actually seemed to be enjoying the feeling of being protected which he was glad for, but he missed her terribly since she wasn't even talking to him anymore, a fact which had not gone unnoticed by the Jam Pony grapevine, which was now full of even more rumours about them.

He couldn't stand the distance between them, she had been in his bed for lees than 3 days, but now he couldn't sleep in it without her, haunted by memories of her he feared would never be repeated, she was tormenting him. He couldn't stop thinking about her, she was on his mind 24/7, it had been bad enough before, but now it was intolerable, he was drowning in her and he couldn't even bring himself to care, it was pathetic really, especially considering that she was in love with Logan, and didn't give a damn about him, even now when she was carrying his child.

Max hadn't even bothered to tell Logan about the baby, so she was still clearly in denial about the whole situation, he didn't think that she would get rid of the baby, but he had no idea what was going on in her head at the moment. He just wished that she would talk to him, before this they were almost friends, but now… well she didn't blame him for what had happened but she clearly wasn't ready to face up to it or him. Just great!

XXX

Sooner or later Max knew she would have to talk to Alec again, but if she had chosen a venue for the reunion it would most certainly not have been Logan's apartment, but unfortunately, fate must have a really twisted sense of humour.

Logan had paged her half an hour ago, and told her to meet him at his apartment to help him with an 'Eyes Only' mission, so here she was. She had pulled her usual trick of picking his lock, and let herself into the apartment without a hitch, but she paused for a minute to watch him work, before she announced her presence, as per usual he jumped at the sudden noise, and she couldn't help but feel a thrill of disappointment that she had snuck up on him, she would never get away with that with Alec…

"You wanted me to do something?" she prompted, when he took a minute to look at her, before seeming to remember the mission.

"Yeah," he confessed, slightly embarrassed to have been caught staring at her, "I just haven't seen you around much lately, I missed you." he admitted, and Max nodded though she was dismayed to find that she did not feel the same way, she would much rather have continued to avoid him. "Right," he continued professionally, "I need you to do a little cat burglary for me, over in Sector 2, the house of one Robert Williams, I need you to get into his vault and remove some plans of his for a bank heist he and his associates are planning, if you can get them, 'Eyes Only' can do a video bulletin and get these guys arrested."

During this little speech Max had become aware of a presence behind her, ALEC, it was very distracting, and she had to work really hard to continue listening to Logan's little rant when she knew that he was right behind her, she hadn't been this close to him in days, 'Too long,' the treacherous voice in her mind that was really beginning to piss her off supplied.

"So we get in steal the plans and get out, not seeing why we need two people here Logan." snarked Alec, causing Logan to jump yet again as he hadn't realised that Alec was there yet.

"Well, Alec," began Logan condescendingly as though he were talking to a 5 year old rather than a genetically engineered super soldier who had trained his whole life for missions like this, it was quite irritating really, (at which point Max mentally slapped herself for thinking anything like that about Logan, and for defending Alec! )"There are guard dogs and a state of the art alarm system," Logan continued on oblivious to Max's train of thought, "assuming something goes wrong the place could be swarming with guards in less than 3 minutes, so its best if there are two of you, in case things get out of hand.", at this Alec nodded curtly, showing his understanding, still lounging comfortably in Logan's doorway.

Max knew that Alec's eyes were on her, so she deliberately didn't turn around, she didn't think that she could trust herself to look him in the eye and keep enough of her wits about her not to give things away to Logan.

"OK when do you need us?" Max asked trying to keep her head in the game, even with Alec's distracting presence hovering in the doorway.

"Tonight if you can." answered Logan promptly, assuming, as usual, that Max and Alec had nothing better to do than missions for him.

"Fine." Max answered looking to Alec for confirmation, though still not meeting his eyes, he inclined his head to show his agreement.

"Sure I got nothing better to do tonight." he admitted in typical smart Alec-ky style, flopping onto Logan's expensive leather sofa with apparent nonchalance, ready to go over the plan in detail.

Max inwardly groaned, with Alec on the sofa, and Logan on a chair by the computer, she could either stand, looking uncomfortable, probably making Logan suspicious, or go and sit next to Alec for an agonizing couple of hours, "Decisions, decisions!" Max thought sarcastically, unsure which move would be worse, if she sat next to Alec she might accidentally touch him, and the only times that had happened in the last few days it had caused major sparks, which Logan was sure to notice, but if she didn't Logan might well wonder why, and she really did not need him to start wondering about her and Alec.

Admitting defeat Max plopped herself down on the sofa, next to the artfully sprawled Alec, who was taking up most of the room. They sat in silence for a minute waiting for Logan to fill them in on the plan, like he usually did, Max desperately trying to avoid accidentally touching Alec, or initiating eye contact with him, but apparently this just made Logan suspicious, after all, Max and Alec always fought, loudly and usually physically, silence between the two was unusual to say the least.

XXX

"OK is there something going on that I should know about?" Logan finally questioned, clearly unnerved by their silence.

"Like what buddy?" questioned Alec, doing a very good imitation of someone who hadn't a clue what was going on, he really was a good actor,(even Max had to admit that).

"You two haven't said more than two words to each other since you got here, what's going on?" questioned Logan suspiciously, eyes flickering between the seemingly relaxed Alec and the seemingly on edge Max. He had no idea what was going on between the two, but he wasn't an idiot, and he could feel the weird vibes coming off them. Max looked to be about an inch away from bolting, and there was actually something vaguely threatening in Alec's eyes, making Logan feel slightly on edge, which was faintly ridiculous, after all this was Alec, since when had ever been the least bit threatening, apart from the whole pointing a gun at him thing… never mind, the point was there was no way Alec would be threatening him now, so he must have been seeing things.

"Nope nothing wrong with us." stated Max, clearly not as calm as she was trying to pretend she was, there was really something wrong here, but he needed to get this job done, so Logan wasn't about to dwell on it.

"Right," he stated, clearly not convinced by Max's answer, but willing to let it slide for now, "about the plan…"

XXX

During the next couple of hours Logan outlined the plan, and the two X5s altered it to make it more workable, but finally it was over. There was a tense moment, when Max and Alec's hands accidentally touched when looking for entry points to the estate, but the moment when their eyes locked in shock was fortunately lost on Logan, who was at the time explaining how they could contact him through the use of microphones and earphones.

The plan was simple Logan would hack into the system from the outside, putting the cameras into a loop so the guards wouldn't see them, whilst the two X5s snuck in to grab the plans, hopefully it would be fairly simple, the bad guys relying on a state of the art security system rather than a complicated vault to keep the plans safe, so there shouldn't be a problem on that front. They would then exit through an upstairs window, before jumping over the fence and making their escape in Logan's waiting car, it should be simple enough for them to accomplish, the only problem would be if they tripped a silent alarm and security was called, but even then Max and Alec should probably be able to eliminate any resistance between the two of them.

**Told ya I wouldn't leave you in suspense for long! Anyway thank you soooo much for all the really encouraging reviews, I'm really pleased that so many people are enjoying the story so far, and I hope you continue to review and give me your opinions on things so I know what I'm doing right or wrong! Anyway, thanks!**

**XXX**


	5. Things Never Go to Plan

**What Was There All Along**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except any OCs.**

It was inevitable that on the way to the job Alec would try to make conversation, it was probably physically impossible for him to be silent for more than 5 minutes at a time, how he had ever survived Manticore… It therefore came as no surprise to Max that once they had left the car and gone radio silent, he took the opportunity to talk to her whilst she was effectively a captive audience.

"I see you haven't told him yet then." he began seriously, for once his famous smirk not present on his face.

"Told him what?" questioned Max, clearly wanting to delay the inevitable talk, as she continued to scan the area for security as they crept, silently along the deserted corridor.

"I wonder." snapped Alec sarcastically, knowing that he would only succeed in making Max defensive with such a comment, but for the moment not really caring, he was that irritated with her denial attitude.

"You make it sound like it's easy Alec." bit back Max angrily.

"It is easy Max, just tell him, he'll find out eventually anyway, but he'll take it better if he finds out from you, before he gets told by everyone else." stated Alec, trying to reason with her, knowing that she couldn't deny the truth of what he was saying, as he continued to creep through the darkened corridors towards the vault.

"I know," Max sighed tiredly, "but I just need some time, ya know? I can't deal with him hating me right now…" she drifted off clearly upset at the prospect of Logan being angry with her, hurting Alec more than she could have realised just by showing how much she cared for Logan, and how much she would never carer for him, despite what they now shared.

"Max you know that Logan could never hate you, he loves you..." admitted Alec, determinedly not looking at her, scanning the corridor ahead, so that he didn't have to see the expression on her face towards his announcement, "besides its not your fault, you can blame it on the heat, on me… its my fault…"

At this Max surprised Alec, reaching forward to grab his arm before he could turn the corner, forcing him to look at her, "I don't blame you," she told him seriously, staring at him with her intense chocolate brown eyes, refusing to let him look away, at that moment all Alec wanted to do was kiss her, and he was almost certain that she wouldn't pull away. He could practically see the sparks flying between them as he began to lean forward, certain that within a second he would be kissing Max... But the moment was shattered by Logan coming off radio silence…

"Guys are you at the vault yet?" questioned Logan, his voice crackling to life in their earphones.

"No not yet," answered Alec, dropping his head in defeat, as Max broke eye contact and moved away from him in fright, "give us a second." Turning to Max he smirked, "Shall we?" he asked, gesturing flamboyantly with his hands.

At this Max shook her head in exasperation, missing Alec's pained look and aborted punch at the wall as she crept past him down the corridor. "Damn Logan and his bad timing!" cursed Alec silently, as he considered punching the wall to take out his frustration, he nearly kissed Max, when she was willing and not heat addled and Logan had to go and screw it up, it was official, his life sucked!

XXX

After the near kiss with Alec, it didn't take long to reach the vault for which Max was exceedingly grateful, she didn't think that she could stand spending much more time with him alone. It was confusing, she loved Logan, but then why were sparks always flying between her and Alec? It didn't make any sense, and it was really starting to get to her, these pregnancy hormones must have been doing a number on her head to get her this strung out!

The vault itself was no problem, a simple combination vault which either of them could of cracked in their sleep, but typically after that things started to go down hill, as somehow they had managed to trip the silent alarm. Within minutes the corridors were flooded with guards, 12 of them at least, perhaps not a huge problem, but enough to be a cause for concern.

But throwing caution to the wind, as she usually did Max attacked them with vigour, separating them from their guns and knocking them out, secure in the knowledge, that Alec had her back, she was so busy fighting them off that she didn't see the kick to her stomach coming until it was too late for her to have any hope of stopping it, but Alec did…

He reacted so fast that even Max didn't see him move, and the guard certainly had no chance of stopping him, he was down before he even saw what hit him, his foot grabbed when it was an inch from Max's stomach, before he was unceremoniously grabbed by the neck and flung 10 feet into the opposite wall. Max had never, **ever** seen Alec that angry, and frankly the ease with which he dispatched the rest of the guards, and the cool efficiency of his actions was disturbing to watch, even considering everything else she had seen. He was like a man possessed, and made sure that none of the other guards got within 6 feet of her after that. She should have said something to him, but she was too shocked about what had almost happened to care, she had come literally within an inch of loosing her baby, and the very thought terrified her, on the up side she now knew that even though this baby was unplanned she did love it, and couldn't bear the thought of loosing it, but at the moment she was too afraid to even think straight.

When he finally stopped he looked to her to see if she was alright, his eyes taking in every inch of her body to check for injuries, burning with possessiveness at the thought of something that belonged to **him** being damaged, but the intensity, the sheer primal power radiating from hazel green eyes was frightening, she knew now that here was a man who could easily kill her, but who would go to any lengths to protect her and their child, even kill, and she didn't know quite how she felt about that, should she be terrified, or, secure in the knowledge that he would protect her?

Suddenly, it seemed that his eyes shifted back to normal, and it was just Alec again, not the stranger of moments before as he knelt next to her, pulling her shaking body into his arms, and whispering endearments and soothing words in an effort to calm her as she sobbed all over his shoulder, getting the fear out of her system.

Max knew consciously that she should push him away, pick herself up and carry on, but for once she let her emotions over ride her duty, for a while at least, and for a few moments she lost herself in the feel of his arms, before finally pulling back, picking herself up, wiping away her tears, and walking out of the building. Max's only concession to her previous fear being an inability to let go of Alec's hand while she walked, she didn't think she would make it back to the car without his comforting presence within reach, and the last thing she needed to do was break down again.

XXX

Back in Logan's car Alec handed over the plans wordlessly, refusing to look in the eye the man who had endangered his mate and their child with his stupid mission, he knew that if he did he would loose it and end up attacking him, which he knew Max would never forgive him for doing, but the scent of Max's fear was still fresh in his nose, and it was driving him crazy. She was still panicked, but she wouldn't let him hold her, or try to calm her in Logan's car, so for now he could do absolutely nothing, except endure his mate's stifled sobs.

Logan for his part was completely oblivious, having got what he wanted, namely the plans, and was not paying Max or Alec the slightest bit of attention, which was fortunate considering that both were too shell shocked to be able to formulate coherent sentences to talk to him.

Alec himself was probably as upset as Max. The thought of loosing the baby was unbearable, and the thought of Max in pain was worse, it had taken every bit of self control he had not to kill those guards, but he wasn't back at Manticore anymore, and he had refused to ever kill that way again, he only hoped that he could keep that vow…

XXX

Logan dropped Max and Alec on a corner, close to Max's apartment, and with a mumbled 'thanks' she exited the car with Alec close on her heels. For once Alec was uncharacteristically silent as he walked with Max towards her apartment.

Max knew that she should have told Alec to go away, to go back to his apartment and not follow her, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She was still practically shaking with shock, and Alec's presence was strangely soothing, she couldn't bear the thought of him leaving, not now, besides which, it being Friday night, OC would certainly be at Crash, and Max wasn't sure that she could face an empty apartment the way she was feeling.

Max was still in shock about what Alec had done though, who knew that he could fight so well? She had always beaten him in the past, but now she couldn't help but wonder, had he let her win? Truth was Max knew that she probably shouldn't have won any of their fights, Alec had ten years of training on her, at least 60 extra pounds in weight, and he had certainly shown that he was physically stronger than her, so had he just been playing with her before? But not only was Max questioning their fights, but Alec's skill in general, she was so used to thinking of him as screw up, but she could hardly call his earlier calculated action the actions of a screw up, it had looked like he knew exactly what he was doing.

The way Alec fought was also puzzling, Max had fought other X5 before, whether it was her siblings, or those she trained with when she was recaptured by Manticore, but she had to admit, the way Alec had fought earlier was impressive, even for an X5. He had managed to move faster than she had even thought was possible, and the power radiating from his eyes…well, what the hell was that about? It was like he had reacted on pure instinct, and Max had never seen anything like it before, it was almost frightening to watch.

Almost before she realised it Max found herself at the front door of her apartment, she had been so lost in thought that she couldn't even remember going up the stairs, but here they were at the door, and Alec was turning to leave… Trying to stem her rising panic at the thought of him leaving, Max reacted on instinct, grabbing his arm, and forcing him to turn back, but now what? She had no idea what to say to him, without coming off either needy or weird, and she really did not need Alec laughing at her. But, steeling her resolve, she began to speak anyway, "You could stay for a while you know, if you want, we've got some new coffee in…" stated Max, catching his eye, and trying to express in a look what she would **never** say in words, 'please don't leave yet, I don't want to be alone'. Fortunately Alec seemed to understand her message, and Max wanted to sigh in relief when he walked into the apartment with her, leaning nonchalantly on the counter whilst she got out the coffee pot, and began to boil some water on the stove.

Curiosity getting the best of her Max couldn't help but question him about what had been on her mind earlier, while she moved around the small kitchen collecting cups and milk for the coffee. "So," she began, trying to sound relaxed, "what was that earlier? I mean I know you're an X5, revved up and all that, but I've never seen you fight that well before, so what's the deal, what happened?" she questioned, trying not too sound to curious about his reply, as she poured the now boiled water into the coffee pot.

XXX

At Max's seemingly innocent questions Alec tried not to freeze, this was not what he wanted to deal with tonight, not on top of everything else that had happened, but he knew enough about Max to know that she would not be put off from her questioning, so he might as well bite the bullet and get it over with now.

"He would have hurt you Max." answered Alec simply, "And I wasn't gonna let that happen." he explained, knowing that Max wanted more of explanation from him than this, but not wanting to have to tell her everything.

"OK," began Max hesitantly, "I get why you went terminator on them, but if you could fight like that how come you never told me?" she accused, "We've done loads of jobs together, so how come you never mentioned it before, and how come you let me win all those times? I mean you could have knocked me on my ass anytime you wanted, but you didn't…Were you playing with me?" she asked, a hurt and somewhat angry expression clearly visible on her face.

At this Alec blanched, so she knew that he'd let her win, somehow he didn't think that she was going to take that particularly well, what exactly was he supposed to say to her? Somehow 'I fell in love with you from pretty much the first moment I saw ya and I just couldn't bring myself to ever go all out on you' would probably not go down well, hell she'd probably laugh in his face, so what exactly was he supposed to say?

Chickening out, and deciding to answer the easier question first Alec began to explain, "I've got 10 years of training on you Max, is it that surprising that I can actually fight well?" he questioned, trying to throw her off balance, but apparently not succeeding.

"That was more than 'well' Alec, you pulverized those guys, and it didn't even look like you were trying that hard. I've seen X5s fight before," she continued, "I was back at Manticore for a while ya know, and I have never seen anyone else fight like that before." she stated, her voice showing how absolutely certain she was about what she had seen, and how much she expected Alec's next answer to be absolutely honest, well wasn't that just peachy!

"Well I wasn't a CO back at Manticore for nothing Max." snapped Alec defensively, really not wanting to have to go into his sordid little Manticore past right now.

"You were a CO back at Manticore?" questioned Max, clearly incredulous about Alec's little announcement, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You never asked Max, and there's no need to sound so surprised about it," replied Alec, more than a little hurt that Max seemed to find the idea so laughable, "I wasn't always a screw up ya know." he defended angrily.

"I didn't say that you were." Max explained clearly trying to appease him, not that Alec believed her for a second, he knew what Max thought of him, and to her he would always be a screw up, so what was the point in hanging around so she could abuse him to his face? Enough was enough, and if she had so little respect for him, why bother to hang around? So although his instincts were screaming at him to stay with her, for once he ignored them, surrendering himself to his turbulent emotions. Without so much as a backwards glance at Max he stormed out of the apartment, refusing to stop even when she grabbed his arm in an effort to stop him from going, but he didn't listen, even he had some standards, and he wasn't about to stay comforting a woman who, not only didn't respect him, but who was in love with another man.

**Poor Alec, Max really put her foot in it that time! Anyway, thanks for all the reviews so far, please continue to review and tell me what you like, and don't like, it helps if I know what you guys think! Anyway thanks for reading!**

**XXX**


	6. Apologizing

**What Was There All Along**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except any OCs.**

**Let the cliché fest begin…**

Max was shell shocked, one minute she was talking to Alec, the next minute he was storming out of her apartment with a hurt expression on his face, just what the fuck had happened here? Why did Alec suddenly care what she thought? She'd said worse to him before and he hadn't cared, granted that was before things between the two of them got even more confused but why was he so upset, and most importantly, why did she care that he was upset?

XXX

When OC arrived home at two a.m. it was to find Max curled up on the sofa around a cushion looking more lost and confused than she had ever seen her look before, she couldn't understand what had happened to make her friend look so small and frail.

"What happened boo?" asked OC quietly, the excitement of Crash forgotten as she caught a glimpse of the ravaged look on her friend's face, she had clearly had some kind of shock tonight. Had something bad happened on her 'Eyes Only' mission with Alec?

"Nothing…" she began, before catching sight of the incredulous look OC was directing her way, no way was OC buying that crap tonight. "Alright, alright," Max sighed, putting her hands in the air in surrender, "I had a fight with Alec."

"Now this is interesting," OC thought, "not her boy my ass, like she'd be this strung out if she didn't care, damn is this situation a mess! Poor boo!"

"So why so gloomy, I mean it ain't like you and he don't fight all the time." she stated rationally, hoping Max would give more detail on exactly what had happened.

"Not like this OC, he was really hurt," confessed Max, gnawing at her lip in obvious concern, "he thinks that I think he's a screw up."

"Well don't you?" OC prompted.

"After tonight I don't know what to think, but screw up is definitely not one of the things I would call him," stated Max grimly.

"There's a story there," realised OC, wanting her friend to tell her exactly what had happened tonight. "Well why don't ya tell Original Cindy what happened and she'll see if she can't help you figure it out." she calmly pleaded with her friend to tell her what had happened.

Sighing Max complied, "It was supposed to be an easy mission, little breaking and entering, grabbing some plans from a vault, ya know the usual, but it all went sideways…" Max broke off, clearly still shaken as she went back to hugging the pillow, clutching it like a lifeline.

"White?" questioned OC, figuring that he could easily be what was freaking out her boo.

"No, nothing like that." denied Max vehemently, confusing OC even more, if not White then what?

"We tripped some kind of silent alarm, and before we knew it there were guards everywhere…" Max explained, her panic seeming to increase exponentially as she neared whatever it was that was scaring her so badly.

"But you and Alec handled it, right boo?" questioned OC, wondering how this had managed to scare her normally unflappable roommate.

At this Max bit her lip, burying her head into the pillow, her shoulders shaking with suppressed tears, this was not good, since when did Max ever cry?

"We were fighting them off and…" Max gulped, steadying her nerves before continuing, "I never even saw him coming…" she stuttered, trying to keep her voice steady, and keep back the sob fighting its way out of her throat.

At these words OC's heart sank, just what had gone down tonight? "What happened?" she asked, her voice deadly serious.

"He was gonna kick me, his foot was like an inch from my stomach…" Max explained, a tear sliding town her cheek, as she dropped one hand protectively to her abdomen and her unborn child.

"So that's what this is about," realised OC, "she nearly lost her baby and she's in shock about it, huh, I guess she really does want it…"

"But ya alright, right boo?" clarified OC, needing to hear from Max that she really was alright, "I mean you got the bastard that tried to kick you, right?"

"No, I didn't," sobbed Max, "I was too slow, I wouldn't have been able to…Oh God OC! I came that close to…" she cried, loosing control and dropping her head onto the pillow.

OC knew what was going on now, and she was worried, but she knew that Max just had to get this out of her system, the baby was alright, her friend was just still in shock about what could have happened, she'd be alright eventually, OC just had to wait for her to calm down a bit.

Once Max's sobs had quieted, and it seemed that her friend had regained some semblance of control, OC got back to asking her what had happened, "So what then, if you didn't stop him…"

"Alec." Max interrupted.

"Alec what?" OC asked, genuinely puzzled.

"Alec saved us." stated Max simply, as she drew her knees up to her chest protectively.

"And now we get to the crux of the matter." thought OC, realising where Max was going with this, Alec had saved her, damn, she was gonna have to buy that boy a drink at Crash!

"I've never seen him like that before OC," Max continued, unaware of Cindy's thoughts on the matter, "he was…like a different person. He didn't let any of the guards get anywhere near me after that, he was on fire, I've never seen him fight that well before OC, and his eyes…" at this Max shivered, the very memory of the experience seeming to frighten her.

Snapping out of the memory Max seemingly then went off at a tangent, stunning Cindy with the abrupt subject change, "Did you know he was a CO back at Manticore?"

"No can't say that I did boo." answered OC, trying to see where Max was going with this.

"Neither did I, he said I never asked, and he's right OC I didn't," Max bit her lip, sucking on it as she thought, before continuing, "I never gave him a chance, I just assumed that he wasn't worth anything cos he made a few mistakes, but its not like I'm so perfect is it," she continued to OC's shock, "you have no idea the stupid things I did when I first got out, but I wasn't willing to give Alec the same chance that people gave me, I guess he was right, I did think he was a screw up, but I had no right to. Truth is, I really don't know him at all, this whole Rachel disaster should have told me that, I have no idea what they did to him in there OC, I can't even imagine what he went through. I don't know if I could have survived it," she shook her head, in seeming exasperation with herself, "He deserves my respect, not my pity." Max admitted, pinning OC with a fierce gaze, filled with self loathing and pain, "But he'll probably never talk to me again so…" she ducked her head, sighing in frustration.

"Hold up there girl, I'm glad ya giving Alec a chance and all, but there is no way that ya boy is gonna stay away for long, truth is he cares about ya too much ta do that, he'll forgive ya boo," OC continued squeezing her friend's hand in support, "he'll forgive you," she repeated looking directly into her friend's tear filled eyes for emphasis, "just give him some time to cool off."

"I hope so OC." admitted Max, letting her breath out in a whoosh as she raked a hand through her hair, "I need to talk to him, I can't leave things like this." she stated, seeming to realise how important it was to sort things out now, before they had a chance to fester.

"Hold up." calmed OC, "Now boo? No offence, suga but you look dead on your feet right now, you should sleep, talk to ya boy tomorrow after you've rested and calmed down some." she pleaded, hoping to appeal to Max's common sense, and failing miserably.

"I can't sleep with this weighing on my mind OC." confessed Max, before pulling a startled OC into a hug, muttering thanks, and grabbing a jacket clearly heading off to Alec's apartment to talk to him, leaving a stunned OC in her wake.

XXX

Alec was upset, it seemed that no matter what he did Max would still think of him as a screw up, and sure he might have deserved it, but what exactly did he have to do to get her to trust him? What right did she have to judge him anyway? Just because he hadn't been lucky like her in getting out of Manticore, it didn't mean that he was worthless, she had no idea what his life had been. She was judging him by all these 'normal' standards, but 'news flash' he wasn't 'normal', would never be 'normal' he had seen things that most people could never imagine, but she expected him to just fit in like he'd always been there, of course he was gonna have problems! That didn't mean he wasn't trying! And that she didn't see it, and seemed determined to believe that he had never done anything important with his life hurt.

Why shouldn't he have been a good soldier at Manticore, a CO, did she really believe that they gave out assassinations to any idiot? He had been chosen for those missions because he was the best, Manticore's finest, and hey, maybe that was nothing to be proud of, but it was the only life he'd known for 20 years, what right did she have to think herself so much better than him? She didn't know what it had been like. She could never understand, they had ways of making you forget, and 'when you couldn't forget they had ways of making you not care', she had no right to judge, she got out, she wasn't there when things got really bad, when she survived re-indoctrination maybe then they could talk but until then she really had no clue where he was coming from.

Feeling generally pissed off, miserable, and still shocked at how close they had come to loosing the baby, Alec had spent the past few hours simply wandering around Seattle, trying to loose himself, escape the fucked up mess he called life, but it didn't do him any good, her face still haunted his thoughts. It wasn't fair, he couldn't even escape her in his mind!

By 6 in the morning Alec admitted defeat, and found himself wandering home to get some much needed sleep. Between Max worries and 'Eyes Only' missions he hadn't been getting enough lately, even by X5 standards. But opening his apartment door he wanted to groan in frustration, it just figured didn't it, his life was never just simple, no it had to be complicated, or if he were feeling really pissed off he could say 'completely fucked up', that would also be fairly accurate.

MAX. She had clearly broken into his apartment to talk to him, hell maybe even to apologise, God knew stranger things had happened! But had clearly been too tired by the mission to stay awake to wait for his return, so there she was, curled up on his couch, fast asleep, head buried in one of his ratty pillows.

"On the upside," Alec thought, "at least she's not awake so I don't have to talk to her now." But what was he supposed to do, just leave her there? He couldn't really stand the thought of waking her up but surely she'd kill him for letting her sleep. Figuring it was probably worth the risk of letting her sleep if she was that tired she needed to, and that he could probably do with the sleep as well, he decided to just leave her. But before he did, he went to his bedroom to get her a blanket, pleased to find that she didn't wake when he wrapped her up in it, apparently her instincts still recognised him as her mate even if she herself didn't, it was kind of nice to know, he realised, brushing some ebony hair away from her face, before retreating to his room to get some much needed sleep.

XXX

Max had come over to Alec's with the intention of apologising to him, she'd knocked on his door, but when he had hadn't answered, she figured that he was either out, or ignoring her, either way she decided that the best course of action would be to pick the lock and let herself in. If Alec was home he wouldn't be able to avoid her, and if he wasn't, well then she would just have to wait for him, because she absolutely refused to leave without talking to him.

Walking into his apartment, Max figured that if she was gonna wait for him, she might as well be comfortable while doing it, so she sat down on his couch, trying desperately not to fall asleep.

However she underestimated how tired she was, and here in Alec's apartment, with the scent of him all around her she felt safe and content, and so tired, so without meaning to, she curled up on the couch, and fell asleep, her head buried in a pillow that smelt like him, a smell her mind connected with safety…

**Thanks for all the reviews!**

**In answer to X5 411 about the whole Alec being a CO thing, I know it's a cliché (hell this story is a walking talking one!) but I couldn't resist. As for him being the brother of an 09er well the way I see it, he was like Zack, CO before the 09 escape, afterwards the position was probably removed for a while, but if he got the Berrisford mission I figure he must have proved his loyalty eventually, so was probably reinstated. As for him telling Max, your right that what made him save her was the instinct to protect her, but he's not sure what to say about that, so being Alec he takes the easy way out and avoids talking to Max about it, throwing her off track by talking about the past. He doesn't think she'd understand why he really reacted the way he did, or at least that was the vibe I was going for. Also we've seen that Alec wasn't much like Ben, despite the whole twin thing, they were shaped by different life experiences, and grew into very different people so it is conceivable for Alec to be a CO but Ben not to be, if you were wondering about that( Besides, Max and Sam aren't exactly the same, hint, hint). People may not agree with me, but as you'll see with time, I've really twisted the history for this story (I'm getting to that bit,) all will become clear eventually!**

**Cheers for all the support, please continue to review and tell me what you think, I really appreciate it when people give me their honest opinion of my work, its really helpful! **

**Now review! Please?**

**XXX**


	7. Borrowed Time

**What Was There All Along**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except any OCs.**

**I realise half of this chapter is literally taken from the episode "Borrowed Time" but it seemed like the best way for me to move the plot forward (ie. get rid of Logan) so what the hell…**

The next day Max awoke to the smell of brewing coffee, it took her a second to realise where she was, but then she remembered, she was still curled up on Alec's couch, where she had fallen asleep waiting for him the night before…

She knew she should get up, she could hear him moving around in the kitchen area, so she knew he was up, but it was so comfortable on his couch all curled up under a blanket… Which now that she thought about it had not been there the night before…He must have given it to her when he came back to find her asleep on his couch, it was a sweet gesture, and typical of Alec, though Max was loathe to admit it, he did generally think of others and try to make them comfortable, and he was surprisingly good at it, considering he spent his formative years in a hell hole like Manticore…

Stretching Max realised that she was gonna have to get up and face the music sooner or later, she still needed to talk to Alec after all, but apparently her body had other plans…

As soon as she moved Max was hit with a blinding wave of nausea, which had her gagging and literally running to the bathroom to puke, she still hadn't learnt that her body did apparently not like such fast movement this early.

Reaching the bathroom, she collapsed by the toilet, and promptly began heaving her guts out into the bowl, she was never gonna get used to this part, it sucked! But within moments of her arrival she sensed a presence behind her, dropping to the floor next to her, and holding her hair away from her face, as OC had been doing for her, at home. ALEC. He stayed with her, as usual a strong soothing presence at her back, whispering soothing things in her ear, and rubbing her back.

Finally the nausea passed and Max was able to rinse her mouth out before falling back gratefully into Alec's arms, he probably had no idea how grateful she was that he had stayed, but she was grateful, it meant a lot for her to have someone there, taking care of her. Usually Max hated showing any weakness, but with Alec she didn't feel like she had to pretend, and frankly at the moment she felt too crappy to put up her usual defences anyway, so she just stayed there for a moment, in his arms, catching her breath, and letting him hold her, his face buried in her hair, whilst she pressed her forehead into the cool skin of his arm, this wasn't exactly how she had wanted her next meeting with him to go, but hey, at least he wasn't running from her.

"Spend a lot of mornings like this?" joked Alec weakly, breaking the silence, and as always, trying to get Max to smile.

"Lately, yeah." Max admitted, laughing weakly at his pitiful attempt at a joke, as she snuggled further into his arms, trying not to move too much, fearing the onset of more nausea.

Finally, after a few more moments of rest, Max steeled her courage, and began, what she had intended to say from the start, "Ya know I actually came here to apologize." she stated, pulling slightly out of his arms, so that she could turn and see his face, to gauge his reaction to what she was telling him.

At this Alec actually looked fairly surprised. "Apologize for what Max?" he asked kindly, brushing some hair out of her eyes with the back of his hand.

"For last night, I mean you saved me and the baby and I never even thanked you." she told him, her eyes full of sincerity and gratitude for his actions, "And I don't think you're a screw up," she admitted in a small shame filled voice, "I know I've been a bitch to you, but I never had the right to judge you like that, I never even gave you a chance…" she started to explain, but never got a chance to finish, as Alec caught her lips in a brief passionate kiss…

It only lasted a second, but what a second it was! The kiss was like him, strong, and warm, intense, making her knees go weak, and her heart speed up, how he could put that amount of fire into a simple thing like a kiss Max would never know.

"What was that for?" asked Max, when she was finally able to formulate sentences again, the boy could definitely kiss!

"Just a thank you," admitted Alec quietly, "no one's ever really apologized to me before, and you actually having faith in me, it means a lot…" he trailed off, determinedly not looking her in the eye.

"Everyone deserves a chance." Max admitted quietly, turning away from him, and finally picking herself up off the bathroom floor, to head off back home, "Guess I'll see you at Crash tonight then?" she questioned him hopefully.

"Yeah, probably." Alec conceded, picking himself up off the floor and brushing the dust off his jeans as he stood.

"Well bye." Max shot out awkwardly, before quickly turning to leave.

"Bye Max." replied Alec quietly, still somewhat confused about what had just gone down between the two of them.

XXX

The weekend passed fairly quickly for both Max and Alec after that, though neither really talked to the other, apart from a few perfunctory words at Crash. Unfortunately, people there were still apparently gossiping about the two of them, Max only prayed that Logan wouldn't hear the rumours.

Max herself was perplexed about what had gone down between her and Alec at his apartment, sure she had come to apologize to him, but kissing him had not been in the game plan. She was, after all, still in love with Logan. But if that was true then why was it that all she could think about at the moment was Alec, the lovable X5 rogue, father of her child and general enigma. Joshua was right, he did have secrets, and Max found herself spending more and more time pondering them, and the man who had come to be such an integral part of her life that she couldn't imagine a world without him. She needed to get her head straight, thinking so much about Alec was not healthy!

All she had to do was get rid of the virus, once she did that she could sort things out with Logan, with no virus standing in their way she could finally be with him, Alec and her unexpected pregnancy not withstanding, surely there was some way that this could all work out? Maybe if she kept thinking like that long enough she would finally start to believe it.

**(Ep. Borrowed Time, slanted for the purposes of this story)**

Determined to find a cure to the virus Max found herself visiting Joshua's more and more often to try and figure out anything useful from the virus papers that he had accidentally painted over. Finally her persistence paid off and she was able to figure out something which could potentially stop the virus, she even tracked down a dweeby doctor to test out her hypothesis, problem was he wanted 20 large for doing the job and the only way she could think of getting that much money was by doing a job, a 2 man job to grab the only copy of a film from the Fox vaults… Unfortunately there was also only one option for the second man…ALEC…

That was how she found herself stuck in a closet with him a couple of days later waiting for a guards shift change… for over an hour. It was absolute torture being in such close proximity to him for an extended period of time, she could reach out and touch him any time she wanted, but for both their sakes she couldn't, what was wrong with her, had she gone insane, was she actually lusting after Alec? Why wasn't she thinking about Logan? If this worked soon she and he would be together, why wasn't she more excited? This was what she wanted, wasn't it?

XXX

Meanwhile Alec was starting to get suspicious, just why was Max so desperate to pull this job? Wasn't she usually the one telling him not to steal? So what was different about this job? So curiosity getting the better of him, he started questioning her about what she was gonna do with her share of the money, perhaps he shouldn't have bothered…

It turned out that she was onto some sort of cure for the virus, some way to be with Logan, and the very idea of it hurt more than he could stand, how had he managed to get him self relegated to 'pimp'? Ouch! But being Alec he couldn't resist picking at the wound just a bit more, trying to force her into an admission of feelings for Logan, but actually discovering that they had never even slept together, question was, was this discovery encouraging or not? Did he still have a shot? He knew he should never have agreed to this dumb job, but what could he say, he was a sucker for a pair of big brown eyes, God he was such an idiot!

He was worried, he knew that Max felt something for him, but she was still confused, still clinging to Logan for safety, the virus had ensured that her and Logan could never really have anything, but if she eliminated it now, before she had given him a chance, as he felt she might be starting to now, what would he do? The only reason that he hadn't killed Logan before now was because the guy was effectively impotent, no threat if he couldn't even touch her, but Alec wasn't sure that he'd be able to curb his territorial instincts if Logan was doing… things he couldn't even stand thinking about with **his **mate, he'd kill the guy, and most frightening of all he wasn't sure that he'd be able to stop himself.

XXX

That night, with Max off wining and dining, and doing God only knew what with Logan, Alec stayed at Crash, drinking, and drinking, and drinking…He longed for oblivion, some form of release from the images of Max and Logan his mind was conjuring, but the alcohol didn't work, he couldn't drink enough of it to get really drunk, X5 physiology being what it was, so he needed to find some other way to take his mind off things… He was loosing his mate, and it was killing him…

Fortuitously at this point he saw Asha approach the bar and couldn't resist telling her the happy news too, figuring that at least now he would have someone to be miserable with, to distract him from things he really shouldn't think about, not to mention prevent him from marching over to Logan's penthouse and squashing him like a bug…He really needed to stop with the '101 ways to kill cyber geek for touching my mate' thing that his brain was doing, thinking was not helping, and if he acted on any of these plans Max would kill him, so as fun as it was to dream, he really had to stop. Besides, he actually kind of respected Logan in a weird way, and since when did killing someone become classified as a sign of respect in his mind? He really needed to get these territorial instincts under control, and fast, as there was nothing Alec hated more than being helpless, even if it was to his own instincts.

Asha seemed to think that the whole Logan and Max thing was terribly romantic, going on about how they were probably enjoying a candle lit dinner and wine, to which Alec could only snipe, "Yeah who wants to consummate 2 years of unbridled passion when we could have pasta!" in a mocking tone of voice, as he knocked back another shot to block out the images assaulting his mind. He really wished he'd kept his mouth shut about that, he really did not need the mental images that that sentence was conjuring, and it was definitely doing nothing to improve his black mood, but he couldn't help himself, the flood gates were opening, and if he couldn't act out his vindictive little dreams, then surely he could Max and Logan bash to his heart's content, after all it was only fair, his heart was breaking here.

Asha was not gonna know what hit her, as every bitter and biting comment he had ever thought about Max and Logan and their non relationship seemed to come streaming out of his mouth in a matter of minutes. This was not good, assuming Asha remembered this tomorrow she was definitely gonna pick up on the jealousy vibes that he was positively radiating right now, feminine intuition and all, and she might tell Logan (though if Logan didn't already know how he felt about Max Alec would gladly kiss Normal…or not, that was really a bad image to even contemplate…). But Alec couldn't seem to help himself from spilling his guts, what did it matter to him anyway what Max was doing? She might have been his mate but she didn't want him, and there was only so much battering his heart could take because of her. If she wanted to believe that she could be satisfied by pasta and candlelight, that was her prerogative, if she couldn't accept who she was, what she needed, why should he care? Problem was, he couldn't seem to get himself to follow his own advice.

So that was how he found himself drinking the bar dry with another one of Logan's girls, what did these women see in him anyway? He didn't get it, sure he had his fair share of girls, but how come Logan seemed to attract all the good ones, the strong independent types that Alec found so damn sexy. Was it his aftershave? His winning personality? His devilish good looks?...okay maybe not, and moving into disturbing territory here… But what was it then, Alec really did not see the attraction, but, his ego taking a battering, Alec did what any self respecting guy would do, he hit on the nearest available female, Asha, in an attempt to make himself feel better, giving her his best 'never fails' 'we're living on borrowed time baby I want you' speech, trying not to think about the hypocrisy of his words, seeing as he couldn't seem to tell Max what she meant to him, but apparently Asha was just drunk enough for it to work on her.

Getting back to his apartment, with a more than tipsy Asha in tow was not easy, especially when he himself was far from clear headed, but finally he made it, depositing her on the couch while he moved off to get them some more liquor…

XXX

Meanwhile Max had hoped that an evening with Logan would help to clear her mind, make it obvious what she should do, but it really didn't. Holding his hand she felt nothing, nada! No sparks or anything, just clammy, 'I get more from a look from Alec than I get from a touch from Logan' supplied that irritating little treacherous voice in her mind. Just what the hell was going on, sure this wasn't permanent, was that why she was stressed, cos she knew it wouldn't last, or was this situation just fundamentally wrong? Now that was a frightening thought.

Frightened, Max did what she did best, stalled… Telling Logan that she didn't want to blow things on a quickie, she wanted things to be 'prefect', whatever the hell that meant. But to herself Max had to be honest, this wasn't what she craved, candle light and pasta was sweet and romantic, it should be what she wanted, right? Then why did she feel like she wanted… something more, something, unnameable… darker, more intense, swimming on the edge of her consciousness like, a memory,… but so hazy…. Two bodies fused as one, slashing, fighting, loving, becoming, the violence, the lust, the pain...the blood…a bite, screaming in ecstasy, teeth, nails and tongues…'mine'…'yours'…what?

She snapped herself out of it, the dream, the memory, whatever it was, it didn't matter, she was here with Logan, and that should be enough,… why wasn't it?

She never got the chance to wonder any more about what was wrong with this situation, as at that point Joshua interrupted, effectively shattering whatever mood Logan had been trying to set. The frantic canine was babbling about a 'gossamer', whatever that was, running around the streets, and how she had to come and find it with him. Max tried to be mad, but if she were honest with herself she would have to admit that she had never been happier to see anyone than she was to see Joshua right now, she could have kissed him she was that relieved to be interrupted. She and Logan were just getting past the polite chit-chat stage and were practically at the point of something more having to happen, when he had arrived, and much as Max hated to admit it, maybe it wasn't nerves, or bad timing, or knowing that it wouldn't last making it feel so wrong, maybe it just wasn't meant to be…maybe it was fate…

XXX

Alec meanwhile had come back from his search for liquor, to find Asha fast asleep on his couch, as Max had been, God had it really only been a few days ago? It felt like a lifetime had passed since then, a lifetime in which he had lost her… Snorting Alec tried not to laugh and wake her, as he dropped to the floor beside Asha, removing her shoes and covering her with the blanket, left out from Max's impromptu sleepover, what was it with women falling asleep on his couch anyway?

Sighing, Alec stood, and decided to go and take a shower. Perhaps this wasn't such a bad thing anyway. Now that he was sobering up, Alec could see all the problems associated with sleeping with Asha. For one thing he actually liked the girl, he respected her, I mean she'd pulled a gun on him the first time they'd met, what wasn't there to love about that? It ranked up there in Alec's all time best first encounters, and considering what had happened when he first met Max, that meant quite a lot indeed. He respected her, that's what it came down to, and he didn't use women he respected, if she were just some floozy, it wouldn't matter, but she wasn't, and a one night stand would mean a helluva lot more to her than to him, could he really do that to her? What is it really worth getting back at Logan Cale if it meant hurting someone like Asha anyway? It probably wasn't and he had to admit that, besides, who could really compare with Max anyway? He thought smirking, as he stepped under the hot spray of the shower, maybe this thing with Asha just wasn't meant to be… maybe it was fate…

**Thanks for reading, and thanks for all the great reviews so far! I really appreciate all the comments I've been given, please continue to tell me what you think! **

**Thanks!**

**Now please review!**

**XXX**


	8. End of an Era

**What Was There All Along**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except any OCs.**

Max had by now convinced Joshua not to go out looking for this 'gossamer' thing, not wanting him to be accidentally spotted by anyone and hurt, but also subconsciously realising, that she needed a second for a search like this, ALEC, the perfect excuse to go and see him… Not that she was willing to admit that, even to herself, but the truth was, she felt sort of guilty for earlier. Especially when he had made his 'pimp' crack, it was typical smart ass Alec behaviour, but she couldn't help wondering if it was masking something deeper, like everything he did seemed to be, was it just a smokescreen to distract her from his pain? "Since when have I ever thought Alec was this deep," she wondered irritatedly, Alec was just…Alec, why did she care how his mind worked? But the truth she didn't want to admit was that she did, she really did.

Logan hadn't been happy that she'd left their date to find Alec, but strangely Max found that she didn't much care what he thought, and she wasn't particularly sorry that she'd had to leave because of something Manticore related.

Reaching Alec's apartment, Max prepared to knock, before coming to her senses and realising that she never knocked, always just barged straight in, so why the sudden change? Why exactly did she care about respecting Alec's privacy? So trying to act naturally, and not nervous, as she suddenly realised she was, she began to pick the lock to let herself into Alec's apartment, letting herself in as quietly as possible.

It was then that she saw a prone from, spread eagled with its head under a blanket on the couch, and figuring that it was Alec, though what he was doing sleeping on the couch she hadn't a clue, she moved to pull the blanket off him, discovering not Alec but…"Asha?" Max stuttered, trying not to let her confusion bleed into her voice anymore than she already had done, though the shock on her face was sure to be a dead giveaway.

What exactly was Asha doing in Alec's apartment, asleep on his couch? But most importantly, why did she care? This was typical Alec behaviour, and sure Asha looked like she should know better, but what did she expect, Alec was practically synonymous with 'slut'. But it hurt, for some unknown reason it felt like a betrayal for Asha to be here in Alec's apartment instead of her…where did that come from? But surely she was being too harsh, she was writing Alec off again, and hadn't she said only a few days ago that everyone, even Alec deserved a chance? She didn't even have any proof that anything had…Well there went that theory…

Alec had just walked out of the bathroom, clearly still wet from the shower, wearing nothing but a towel around his hips, water literally dripping from his tousled locks, and down his well defined abs, 'He looks yummy' informed Max's much loathed inner voice, whilst the rest of her conscious mind rebelled and continued fantasize about what him and Asha had been doing… Max was furious. She knew that she shouldn't be, knew that she had no claim on Alec, but she was having his baby, and yeah sure she had chickened out from actually telling anyone yet, but surely that meant something? Yet here he was cavorting with Asha. 'Asha' what kind of name was that anyway? Why was it that everywhere Max was she suddenly was too? What exactly gave her the right to move in on Max's terriotory, first Logan now Alec…could the girl not find her own boyfriends or something? And, whoo… What in God's name was that? Did Max actually equate Alec with 'territory', like he was her property or something, what the hell was up with that? And what the fuck was wrong with her mind that suddenly had her thinking like that? Was she jealous of Alec and Asha?

XXX

"Max?" questioned Alec finally, when her silence, not to mention the burning fury he could see raging in her eyes was starting to creep him out. Figured she'd walk in just when things looked worst for him, she couldn't have walked in half an hour ago to see him being all nice and kind to Asha, tucking her up in a blanket, oh no, that would be simple! She had to arrive just at the point where he was stepping out of the shower wearing only a towel with Asha fast asleep on his couch. He looked guilty as hell, and he knew it, but for once he hadn't done anything, it was just sod's law that the one time he really had done nothing she would never believe him, when he lied to her loads of times before about trivial stuff and got away with it…not that that was anything to be proud of, but anyway it was the principle of the thing! But if he wanted an upside to this God-awful situation, this cosmic joke that was his life at least Max was jealous, so that meant she felt something for him, right? He'd have to remember that for when she strung him up from a tree later.

"I need your help. Can you get dressed?" Max finally spat out, still clearly angry, though trying, unsuccessfully to hide it from him.

"Sure." Alec replied, moving off to quickly pull on some clothes and trying not to think of the ludicrousness of this situation. It was so funny he could cry! He'd gone off on an all night bender, hooked up with a girl, and generally had a shitty night, although, nothing actually happened, the reason for this you ask? Max and Logan had found a cure to the virus so he figured they'd be out all night knocking boots, hence the reason for said drinking binge. But instead of having crazy naked sex with Logan, here she was, in his apartment, having walked in on the worst scene he could imagine, in the circumstances, crazy jealous and looking about ready to castrate him for, appearing to have done exactly what he believed she had been doing with Logan, which had pushed him into said situation in the first place! Was he the only one seeing the hypocrisy in this freaking disaster! This was seriously not fair, where did she get off judging him! And perhaps most importantly, why was she here?

Returning to the living room fully dressed Alec then followed Max out of the apartment, off to …do whatever it was that she wanted him to do, which come to think of it, she hadn't actually mentioned yet.

It didn't take Alec long to discover, after a little probing, that a Manticore gossamer was on the loose in the city, the sewers more precisely, which just figured considering how well his evening had been going so far. It seemed that every time Max ever came to see him he ended up crawling around in the sewers with her, she was just lucky he loved… and he had better not be thinking that because that was a sure fire way to heart ache and misery. "What a mood killer," Alec thought wryly, "but wait, yeah my mood was crappy anyway!" he fumed, trying desperately not to think…what he had just almost thought, may have been true but he didn't have to keep thinking it, things sucked bad enough already.

Anyway, trying to distract Max from his turbulent thoughts, Alec resorted to his usual tactics, namely talking, about anything and everything, gossamers mainly, but skirting around anything important, "Banter, that's the order of the day." realised Alec, after all, it was what he and Max were good at, verbal sparring, one of the many reasons he loved her…"And I can't believe I just thought that again!" cursed Alec inwardly, "Am I looking for more pain, or am I just too stupid to control my own aimlessly meandering thoughts!" he fumed, angry at himself again, kicking at the water of the sewage tunnel in irritation, but stopping when, as per usual, Max shot him a death glare.

But Alec being Alec, he couldn't resist trying to fix things, he had to try and make things right between him and Max, well first he stirred things up a bit with some, fairly inappropriate, not to mention irritating smart ass comments, but a guy had his pride right? So he did rub her nose in what he and Asha could have done, a bit, didn't want her to be complacent did he? But then, his morals (which Max believed to be nonexistent!) kicked in, and he tried to allay some of Max's worries, though why he was bothering when he wasn't sure she cared was anyone's guess.

He explained to her, that 'for the record' nothing happened, trying to throw it out as a comment of no importance, and failing miserably… though he also couldn't resist throwing in a possibility of a 'double date' to irritate her. Max however didn't seem to notice his atypical behaviour, she was that busy trying to pretend that she didn't care, and hence warming Alec's heart by proving that she, in fact, did care if she was trying so hard to prove she didn't. How he pulled off that illogical leap he wasn't sure, feminine judgement?…yeah, well whatever it was he was sure he was right.

Finally they emerged in some disgusting junk yard, where, shockingly, Max wanted them to split up to find the gossamer. To say Alec was unhappy about the idea would have been an understatement, he was furious about it, his instincts screaming at him, that with a dangerous predator on the loose he should keep his mate in sight at all times, but as usual Max was having none of it, and told him, in no uncertain terms, to get lost, so valuing having all his parts remain in their current locations, he agreed. Unusual that!

XXX

It took Max and Alec less than half an hour for both of them to be slimed, and dragged unconscious to a car by the creepy little lizard. So perhaps they might have been better off sticking together, but at least they tried…

XXX

Coming to after being slimed by the little lizard thing, Max found herself stuck to the seat of a car in the junk yard, with Logan, Alec, and the three hapless idiots the creature had captured before. How the planned romantic evening with Logan had managed degenerated into an unprecedented disaster she wasn't sure, but she was about to spend her last hours of being safely able to touch Logan stuck to the seat of a car with goo, and if that wasn't a sign from above that their relationship was doomed she didn't know what was. But Max never had been very good at listening to other people, so why did listening to fate have to be any different.

Waiting for the others to come to, Max found herself pondering the evening, where had it all gone wrong? Sure, she hadn't exactly been honest with Logan, what with the having another man's child and everything, is that why this was happening, to teach her a lesson? And why was she more worried about Alec and Asha than loosing her chance with Logan? Sure she believed him when he said nothing had happened, Alec never lied about stuff like that, but then why had Asha been there? And why the hell did she suddenly care who Alec was seeing!

She didn't have long to think though as Alec and Logan both seemed to wake up simultaneously, "Joy of joys I get to talk to them both at once!" she sniped silently, praying to God that this nightmare would end soon. They tried to get out of the goo, but all found that they were stuck tight, the perfect end to the perfect night! Their only hope of rescue lay in Joshua…who they had specifically told not to leave Logan's apartment, so it was safe to say they would probably be stuck here for a while longer…Just great!

It was at this point, when Max thought things couldn't get any worse, that Logan decided to have a heart to heart with her...in front of Alec. Exposing the fact that the virus was still a part of their lives and that they hadn't actually got around to doing anything yet, to which all Alec could do was snipe, typical! Fortunately though, Joshua turned up to rescue them before things could get any more fucked up, and Max was able to trap the gossamer, whilst Alec managed to, convince the junk yard guy to keep it as a pet! Max had to admit, sometimes Alec really did impress her, and pulling the proverbial rabbit out of the hat with that one was really quite an achievement, though she'd never in a million years tell him that.

Finally though, it was just her and Logan, sitting in the junk yard car, talking, her least favourite activity when it was this excruciating. What was she supposed to say, when really she was almost relieved the virus was back? With the virus in place she didn't have to make a choice, she was safe, she had Logan, but they could never really be anything, and she could…use it as an excuse to keep Alec at arms length. "It's no use," she sighed, forcing herself to think clearly, she couldn't use Logan as an excuse to not deal with this thing...whatever it was with Alec, she had to be strong, and realistically what with the virus and her pregnancy she had to face facts, her and Logan were over…She just needed to tell him that, easier said than done…

"Guess this it then." began Logan, uncomfortably, watching the seconds tick down on Max's pager.

"Yeah," Max concurred, not having the courage to look him in the eye, as she tried to rehearse what to say to him, "look Logan," she tried to explain, "this virus thing isn't going anywhere, I mean this proves it," commented Max sardonically, waving her hands in the air, and indicating their time ticking away, "maybe it just wasn't mean to be…" she tried to let him down gently.

"No Max I won't believe that, I can't pleaded Logan," grabbing her hand, and forcing her to look him in the eye, "I had to give up on us once I won't do it again." he begged, his voice impassioned, and filled with pain.

It killed Max to do this to him, he'd been a part of her life for so long, but in the end, this was for his own good, who knew, one of these days she could kill him if he wasn't careful, and she didn't think that she could live with that, he'd one so much for her, and she did love him, but perhaps maybe just as a friend…

"Logan…" she tried to reason with him, but suddenly her mouth was assaulted with a fierce kiss, it wasn't like Alec's kisses, it wasn't what she craved, but it had such pain, such depth that she gave into it, this would be their good bye, because Max refused to play this game any more… It was over…

With one last look Max exited the car, turning back only to say 'good bye', she could have told him about the baby, probably should have done in fact, but she couldn't, not yet, there'd be time for that later. For now she just wanted this relationship to die with dignity, there'd be time for recriminations, impassioned speeches and cries of betrayal later, God knew that was still on the horizon, cos over or not, Logan was still gonna hit the roof when he found out that she was pregnant. The question was, what was Max gonna do with her life now? What was she gonna do about Alec? Could she trust him?

XXX

Alec meanwhile was back where this freaky ride had started, his apartment, where Max had seen him and Asha and everything had gone to hell. Practically as soon as he had walked through the door, he'd flung himself down on his bed and tried to sleep, but it was useless, he needed to know what Max and Logan were saying to each other, if only to torment himself, he could practically hear the pledges of undying love from here and it was making him sick to his stomach. How could Max believe that she could be satisfied with 'normal'? She was so much more than that, and if she just gave him a chance he could show her just how great it was not to be 'normal', to be transgenic…

**Eww Max and Logan kiss, sooo very wrong, but anyway… Personally I'm not so fond of this chapter, its basically a rehash of borrowed time (still) but it seemed the best way to get to the end point, and let Max and Logan's relationship die, anyway, I'd be curious to know what you think!**

**Cheers for all the reviews, I'm glad that so many people like my crappy little story, anyway, please continue to review and tell me what you think!**

**Thanks!**

**XXX**

**PS. I'm back at school now, so expect updates to take a bit longer! Thanks!**


	9. The New Max

**What Was There All Along**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except any OCs.**

**This chapter isn't very, exciting (sorry) its just a transitional bit, into the rest of the story, but fear not, the next chapter is more exciting! I'll try to post again soon!**

At work the next day after the whole 'gossamer' incident, Alec expected Max to be depressed, the not getting rid of the virus thing, probably breaking her heart because she couldn't be with Logan. God knew he'd been up all night thinking of scenarios for their last few minutes of being able to touch talk, and felt like shit because of it. But to his extreme shock Max looked fine, better than fine, she looked like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, still slightly pale (probably that god-awful morning sickness he had got such a clear view of last week) but she seemed happier than before, still a bit confused, when wasn't she, but definitely calmer, hardly the attitude of a woman who just lost the love of her life…

He had to do a double take to check that he wasn't dreaming, and then when she saw him, and said 'good morning' chirpily, in a very un-Max like way, **not **avoiding him like the plague, he **knew **he must have been dreaming, even going so far as to pinch himself to prove it, but he wasn't. Huh? What had happened to the bitch he knew and loved?

Alec was officially very confused now, had they somehow managed to get some in the last 30 seconds of being virus free? Or maybe they found a way round it, didn't seem likely, but what the hell else would be making Max so happy and carefree? Not that Alec wasn't happy to see her that way, she'd been miserable too long and that couldn't be doing the baby any good, but why exactly was she so happy? It made absolutely no sense!

XXX

Max was feeling better than she had done in months, her relationship with Logan was officially over, and she **finally** had some closure, it was liberating! But apparently, to her great amusement, her good mood was scaring people! They had got so used to the bad mood, the bitchy Max that they didn't quite know what to make of the new 'chirpy' friendly Max. If she had known all she had to do was be nice to people to freak them out she would have done it months ago, it was worth it for the entertainment value alone!

Sure Max was sad that what she had with Logan was over, but realistically it had been over for months now, and maybe, just maybe, Max was ready to admit it was convenient to hide behind feeling for Logan to avoid having to deal with feelings for Alec…She was still working on the whole denial thing she'd had going on now for a while, but she was starting to see that that might be the case, question was could she trust Alec? And wasn't it just typical that Max had to do things in reverse, surely you were meant to decide if a guy was trustworthy father material, **before** you got knocked up by him? Well that just proved how impossibly screwed her life was!

XXX

His curiosity winning out over his survival instincts, Alec finally decided to talk to Max about her drastic change in attitude, probably not one of his brighter ideas, but he was, after all, part cat and so couldn't resist the curiosity.

Approaching her casually, he leaned back against the lockers whilst she rummaged around in her own locker for lip gloss, or whatever it was girls always seemed to need from their lockers.

"So," he began with apparent nonchalance, "what's with the good mood? After what happened yesterday I figured you'd be off crying somewhere." he sniped, trying to pretend that he could really care less about her answer, "Not that I don't like this new caring gentler Max, but you're starting to freak me out." he admitted, shocked to see, that Max actually looked amused by his concern, well that was certainly not the reaction he was expecting!

"I'm just glad that I got a few things straight yesterday, that's all." stated Max calmly.

"So you and Logan sorted things out then?" asked Alec, genuinely puzzled by Max's reactions, shouldn't she be more upset?

"You could say that." admitted Max, finally seeming somewhat sad about whatever had happened, "It's over.", she finally admitted, so quietly that he almost didn't here her.

"Over?" questioned Alec, not sure if he could trust his ears, Max and Logan were really over, how did that happen?

"Yeah," she conceded, staring fixedly at a crack in the tiles on the floor, rather than at him, she sighed tiredly, slamming her locker and shouldering her bag, "I realised that I can't keep putting my life on hold, or his." She looked genuinely saddened by the realisation, and it pulled at Alec's heart to se her so lost, "I mean what kind of life could we have had anyway?" she continued, her voice growing in strength as she spoke, "This virus isn't going anywhere and I don't want to accidentally kill him or anything. Truth is, I guess it's been over for a while now, I just didn't want to accept it." she admitted.

"Okay." Alec conceded, so shocked by her revelation that he was surprised he could still string together coherent sentences, he could have danced he was so happy, Max and Logan were over! And maybe, just maybe he had a shot! But he was still her friend, first and foremost, and she was probably hurting, so for now he had to push his own feelings aside and think about her, he needed to know what was going on in her head. "But then why so chirpy? You've been smiling like a Cheshire cat since you got in." he continued, still confused by Max's previous good mood.

"I don't know." confessed Max, gnawing on her lip uncertainly in an endearing way that just made Alec want to kiss her, "I guess its just, not having all that stress hanging over my head anymore." She smiled, "It still hurts, we were close for a long time, and I still care for him, just only as a friend now," what is it Alec's imagination or was she emphasising that fact more than was natural? Nah, "but it's like I finally have some closure now ya know?", she questioned, cocking her head beseechingly at him.

"Yeah, I know Max," admitted Alec, grudgingly, he didn't like digging up the past, but this was kinda how he had felt when Rachel died, sure there had been a lot of grief, it hurt, still did actually, he had loved her after all, but the closure of knowing that it was really over did give him some measure of peace too, it had helped him to move on, and realise what he felt for Max…

XXX

At his admission, Max smiled at him, heart meltingly, apparently glad that someone understood what she meant, but, as her irritating inner voice informed her, 'doesn't he always?', even her conscious mind had to admit that he usually did. He understood her better than practically everyone, probably even better than OC, a somewhat frightening thought!

He didn't dig into last nights events anymore than that though, telling her to call if she ever needed him, and that'd he'd always be around if she wanted someone to talk to, but then leaving her alone with her thoughts. How was it that he always seemed to know exactly what she needed from him? He never crowded her, as Logan often had, just let her tell him what she wanted to in her own time, but conversely, not letting something drop, going after it with tenacity and determination if he knew that she was holding back anything important. He really was a paradox, a man of contradictions, always saying one thing and doing another, never half as self centred as he made himself out to be.

He had also been being surprisingly sweet about her and Logan's break up, another unknown facet of his personality, not gloating or saying 'I told you so' as he could have done, surprising her once again with his sensitivity to her feelings, how come she had never noticed how sweet he could be before? Maybe she just hadn't given him a chance to show it, she'd labelled him as one thing, and been completely unwilling to see him as anything else, it was only after the whole Rachel debacle that she even realised how much he kept hidden from her, how much she still didn't know about her knew friend, the man who was now the father of her child…

XXX

Alec had been surprised to hear about Max and Logan's break up, to say the least, he didn't think that it was a bad thing, far from it, he was relieved that that train wreck of a relationship was over, it had been making Max miserable for too long, now she could move on, and who knew, maybe even to him, stranger things had happened, and he was now convinced that she did care for him a bit, so maybe? Yeah right, but hey, a guy could dream!

XXX

Logan meanwhile was having more trouble accepting the break up than either of the transgenics. He was convinced that Max had just done it because of fear of the virus, and if he could just get rid of that everything would be alright between them again. He just couldn't see that maybe this relationship wasn't meant to be and was determined to win Max back…

He therefore kept calling her, and going to Crash in the hopes of being able to speak to her, but Max was avoiding him, and strangely even Alec seemed to be nowhere in sight when he was around, the guy was even useless for relaying messages!

XXX

Max herself however, was starting to get back into a routine, it was hard, not seeing Logan anymore. He had been such a big part of her life for so long, that it was weird not being with him all the time, but she was dealing, moving on with her life… she just wished that Logan would do the same…

As it was Logan was calling her everyday, and had taken to staking out places like Crash in hopes of running into her, fortunately he wasn't very good at it, and she always saw him coming in time to make her escape. She knew that this situation couldn't go on forever, and he deserved to hear from her, not someone else about the baby so she would have to talk to him eventually, just not yet… She needed time, and space to sort her head out, Alec got it, so why couldn't Logan? She needed to distance herself from Logan, and what they had once shared before they got into a post mortem of the relationship, and the inevitable slanging match which was bound to follow his discovery of her pregnancy, she needed time to prepare herself for the fallout, she knew she didn't have a lot of it, but surely she was entitled to some?

Alec meanwhile had become a rock for her in a time of need, always there to talk to, about serious stuff, or the mindless witty banter she loved to engage in with him. She still hadn't really discussed with him about what they were going to do about the baby, but he was being frighteningly understanding about the whole thing, allowing her space, but also never straying far, always being close enough to protect her, if the need arose. It should have been irritating the hell out of her, it wasn't…

Truthfully she had missed the feeling of security which came from knowing that your unit had your back, Max hadn't felt it in a very long time, and when she'd first escaped, it had been that which had hurt most, the isolation from her own kind, seemingly surrounded by the enemy… It was one of the reasons why she never slept for long, though she would deny it if asked, the truth was, she could never lower her guard enough to sleep properly, the only time she had recently had been during that infamous heat…with Alec…

XXX

Unfortunately for Max however her new routine had something that she really didn't enjoy, morning sickness, but it was there, regular as clockwork, and had also taken to manifesting itself during late morning as well, at Jam Pony…

It was also not going unnoticed by her colleagues that she had suddenly developed the urge to heave every morning, and she once again found herself and Alec to be the subjects of work place gossip. Unfortunately for once the gossips were actually right about what was wrong with her, a fact which would normally have amused her considering how far off they usually were about everything, but under the circumstances she did not find the situation amusing at all.

Thank God for Alec though, she never thought that she would ever think it, but it was true. He was there with her, every morning, holding her and soothing her until the nausea abated for the day, a fact which was only helping to fuel the spread of the gossip, but for once Max really didn't care what people thought. As long as Alec was with her she felt alright, the sickness was horrible, but she was calmer when she knew he was there, like when back at Manticore when she had been ill she had felt calm and safe knowing that her unit were taking turns guarding her despite the fact that they were disobeying orders to do it, they never left her to suffer alone, and Alec didn't either, a fact that she was very grateful for, even if the 'condition' was partly his fault.

Finally, after six consecutive mornings of nausea at Jam Pony Max had bitten the bullet and told Normal that she was pregnant. To say he was not happy would have been an understatement, Max honestly thought that he was gonna have a coronary, there was definitely a vein popping very ominously in his temple, and that was even before he knew who the father was. When Alec, who was there for moral support, and because he was partially responsible for the situation, told him that it was his kid Normal actually fainted, just keeled over in shock, not being able to conceive of 'Missy-miss' and his 'golden boy' it would have been hysterical had Max not been worried that he was about to fire her. But Alec came through, talking Normal round, and convincing him not to spread the word yet, they would tell people, those who hadn't already guessed, in their own time. He even convinced Normal to offer Max a temporary job helping in dispatch when she couldn't go on runs anymore. How Alec managed it Max would never know, one minute she thought that Normal was gonna kill her for touching his 'golden boy' the next he was practically kissing her hand, which was, come to think of it, probably more worrying, she had to agree with Original Cindy, the 'hold' Alec had over Normal was 'down right worrying' but for once she was actually grateful for it. She had managed to come out of the other side of this confrontation still with a job, an impressive feat! But now she was somewhat running out of reasons not to tell Logan, she was gonna have to do it soon… Oh joy!

**Thank you sooo much for all the great reviews, you guys really inspire me!**

**Please continue to review, it only takes a second, and it really helps to know if people like what I've written.!**

**Thanks!**

XXX 


	10. Seizures

**What Was There All Along**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except any OCs.**

It was on an unremarkable day a few weeks after Max's break up with Logan that Alec noticed Max looking far from healthy, not that that was unusual, her morning sickness having been quite bad recently, but this was different. She didn't look nauseous, more like…grey, washed out, and slightly shaky as she exited the ladies bathroom in Jam Pony gingerly, as though the movement cost her a great deal of effort, not exactly her usual confident cat like swagger. Alec knew that he recognised the symptoms from somewhere, but where? He really needed to remember, he knew it was something important he just… and then it hit him, like the anvil on the head Max had threatened him with when he first took the job at Jam Pony, seizures…

That was what had Max looking so crappy right now, she must have been going through a rough patch right now, "A really rough patch!" he grimaced, looking at the black circles under Max's eyes in sympathy, she really shouldn't have been working like this…

All X5 got the seizures, it was part of the serotonin deficiency they all shared, the reason they needed to regularly take meds like tryptophan. Alec himself had never particularly had the seizures that bad, but he knew people who had, and back when the seizures had first manifested in the then 3-6 year old X5 Alec vividly remembered, Sol, one of the younger kids from his unit, being dragged off by the guards in the middle of the night, they never saw him again…

It was not one of his fonder childhood memories, and that was saying a lot considering how many of them there were to choose from. But he particularly remembered that feeling of helplessness that he had had then, perhaps for the first time in his young life. He had realised that he couldn't protect his unit from everything. He could cover for them in drills, watch over them when they were injured, stay up all night trying to make them laugh if they were sad but he couldn't stop them seizing, and God knew he had tried. When it first started happening he used to sit up all night watching over whoever was ill, he knew he'd get solitary if he was caught, but he didn't care, they were his unit, his pack, relying on him to protect them. He was their CO, he was supposed to protect them when things got bad. But he couldn't not that time, and Sol had paid the price, he couldn't even bear to think about what their lab techs had probably done to him when they tried to figure out what went wrong… The only thing that had kept him going, kept him sane was the certainty that even if he had failed Sol, the rest of his unit still needed him, were still relying on him to save them. It was the only reason that he didn't break down and try and kill the guards who came for Sol, he couldn't let the others down, little CeCe, Biggs and Maiya… But no, he couldn't think about Maiya, about any of them, he had made sure they were safe by disabling that signal, there was no more he could do for them, except pray they survived…

Pulling himself out of memories that he had spent the better part of 14 years trying to forget, and stopping himself from worrying about things he had no control over Alec once again focused on Max. He couldn't bear the thought of her being sick, especially not with the seizures. Was she crazy coming into work like this? She needed rest!

Alec longed to rush over to Max, sweep her up into his arms, and take care of her. She needed someone to force her into doing something sensible, but this was Max he was talking about, when did she ever listen to anyone? There was absolutely no way she was gonna listen to him, even if they had been getting closer lately, but he had to try…

XXX

Max was feeling awful. She knew she looked like crap this morning, but she just couldn't bring herself to care. She had been up most of the night with seizures and had literally had no sleep. Though she usually only needed a couple of hours of sleep a night, the seizures really took it out of her and Max felt absolutely exhausted, the last thing she needed was a long day delivering packages, but after her bombshell of several weeks ago, she was trying to stay under Normal's radar, which meant following the rules, for once, and not skipping work whenever she felt like it.

Max hadn't had any seizures since she had got out of Manticore again, chalking it up to whatever meds they had given her whilst back inside, and her own vigilance in taking her Tryptophan regularly, but the seizures last night had been severe, probably some of the worst she had ever had…

Max hated the seizures, they scared her, and if there was one thing Max hated, it was being afraid. Back at Manticore the seizures had always frightened her, even when she was little. They meant a complete loss of control of her body, she was helpless in the throws of a seizure, and though she knew back at Manticore that during one her unit would try to protect her, she also knew that they didn't always succeed, as the image of Jack's autopsy, observed by her and Ben in the shadows, indelibly burned into her memory attested. He had been the first in her unit to develop the seizures, the first pulled from his bed by guards in the middle of the night whilst they looked on in horror. That had been the first time that it had ever occurred to the then 4 year old Max that maybe Zack and Erica couldn't in fact protect her from everything, like an 'ordinary' child discovering that their parents didn't in fact know everything, it shattered her world, for months making her too afraid to sleep, in case the guards should come for her in the middle of the night too.

Max's seizures always seemed to precede something terrible, like the night they escaped… It had been her seizures that caused it, the others were afraid that the guards would take her away, so when they had come Zack had attacked them, knocking away a gun which Eva then picked up, causing Lydecker to shoot her, frightening the others into escape, and perhaps ultimately, causing Ben to loose it. All the truly terrible things in her life, seemed to be traced back to the seizures, loosing her unit, killing Ben, Eva's death, watching them cut Jack open, they were the precursors of bad things to come…

She was so out of it, lost in the past, that she didn't even register the tell tale tingle which she had come to realise meant Alec was approaching…

"Hey Max." greeted Alec jovially, "You're not looking so hot this morning." he stated seriously.

"Gee thanks Alec, you really know how to make a girl feel good about herself!" snapped Max, far to harshly given the circumstances, as she slammed closed her locker with a resounding 'bang', causing her, and Alec's sensitive ears to ring, painfully.

"Just looking out for you Max!" snapped back Alec equally harshly, before seeming to calm himself by taking a deep breath and continuing more softly, "You just don't look well, that's all." he finished sincerely, pinning her with a concerned hazel eyed stare, "Is it the seizures?" he questioned kindly.

"Yeah." admitted Max grudgingly, running a hand through her dishevelled hair, as she realised that he was just being a friend, and seeing if she was alright, hence she was probably out of line snapping at him before, though admittedly, she had said worse to him in the past, not that that was anything to be proud of!

"You shouldn't be in work then, take a day, rest for a while, I'll cover with Normal." he began, kindly.

"Thanks but no thanks." sneered Max nastily, "I don't need you coddling me Alec I'll be just fine." finished Max, bending down to grab her bag so that she could leave. She knew that she over stepped the mark with what she'd said to him, but some things were too deeply ingrained to prevent, you never showed weakness to someone who wasn't in your unit, if Manticore had taught her anything it was that. But then why was that niggling voice in her brain trying to convince her to let Alec help her, since when had she started to consider him as part of her unit?

She didn't however have time to ponder the mental acrobatics her brain was indulging in over Alec as she was suddenly hit with a blinding wave of weakness, turning her limbs to jelly as a white hot pain exploded in her head, she could literally feel her control slipping, as her limbs began to spasm causing her to drop her bag…

"NO!" she screamed inwardly, why was this happening? Why now in Jam Pony where anyone could walk by and see, in a place where she couldn't hide. She could feel herself falling, loosing control of her leg muscles as she started to seize, but she never hit the ground…

XXX

Alec had seen Max's strength and resolve wavering, and though she had essentially told him to 'fuck off' he knew that it would only be a matter of time before she crashed. He was right.

No sooner had Max stood after bending to retrieve her previously abandoned bag Alec saw the agony and fear flash across her eyes, he knew the signs well enough to know what would happen next, and lo and behold she dropped her bag, loosing control of her limbs and falling as her body began to convulse.

He never let her hit the floor. Moving so fast he practically blurred Alec grabbed Max's convulsing body, pulling her to his chest and holding her arms gently to stop her from flailing too obviously, as he sunk to the floor with her in his arms, fearing that at any moment another messenger might come across them. He knew he had to get her Tryptophan, and fast, but he didn't want to have to leave her convulsing on the floor…

It was at that point that OC rounded the corner and discovered them. At first she seemed about ready to launch herself into a tirade against Alec, misinterpreting what she was seeing, but then she seemed to realise what had happened and rushed forward to help.

"Damn boo," muttered Original Cindy, moving towards Max, as she crouched and brushed some hair out of her pale sweaty face, "I told her not to come into work today…" she muttered under her breath, clearly exasperated with the temperamental transgenic.

"Well that makes two of us." quipped Alec furiously, trying to mask his fear for Max and the baby with anger, feeling that of the two he was much more comfortable with anger. But then he registered what OC had actually said. "Why'd you tell her not to come into work today?" he questioned curiously.

"Cos, smartie pants Max was seizing all night last night and she looked like death warmed over this morning." she explained, impatiently tapping her foot, as she took in her friend's stricken and pasty face.

'All night', the words echoed in Alec's head ominously, this was so not good! The seizures may have been bad when they came, but you usually only got them a few times a year, generally few and far between. Alec could count on one hand the amount of times he had seen X5 have seizures on two consecutive days, and all of them had died… Shit!

OC seemingly registering the look of dawning horror on Alec's face began to panic herself, "Alec what's going on?" she questioned frantically, "And why all of a sudden do ya look like somebody died?"

"OC can you get the Tryptophan out of Max's bag?" he questioned, ignoring what she had just asked him and trying desperately to stay focused on the task at hand, helping Max.

"Sure suga." agreed OC, hurriedly doing as he asked, searching for the bottle of pills she knew that Max kept in her bag, "But when this is all over you betta tell me what that look was all about…" she ordered, her tone leaving no room for negotiation as she opened the bottle and poured six of the small white pills into Alec's waiting hand.

Alec then wasted no time in trying to coax Max into swallowing the pills, all the while praying that no one was about to walk in on this little scene, as Max weakly tried to swallow, a plaintive call of 'Alec' the only sound she made as she caught his eye, seeming to question his actions with her stare. "Well what does she expect me to do?" He thought angrily, "Stand by and do nothing?" She always seemed to expect the worst of him!

Catching OCs concerned eye again Alec continued to question her, "How many of those pills did Max take this morning?" he asked, trying to figure out why she was having so many seizures, had she not taken a high enough dose or something?

"Six like usual." stated Original Cindy with certainty, "Why do ya wanna know?" she questioned, confusion clear in her warm brown eyes.

"Just trying to figure out what's going on." admitted Alec honestly, looking down at Max, who had started thrashing more weakly in his arms, it looked like the Tryptophan was taking effect if the seizures were weakening but he couldn't figure out what was up, six pills should have been enough to have tied an X5 over for at least 24 hours, so why had she started seizing again? It didn't make sense, and it couldn't be an indication of anything good.

"This isn't good is it?" questioned OC, catching Alec's hazel eyed stare, before glancing down to look at the now slightly quieter Max.

"No its not." admitted Alec, looking down at the petite woman in his arms, she looked awful, not at all like her usual badass self. She looked weak, vulnerable, it was actually sort of frightening seeing her like that. But Alec had seen worse, a lot worse, so he tried not to react to it.

"I take it that many pills shoulda worked." deduced OC.

"Yeah it should have done," he admitted, "she shouldn't have had any seizures this morning." he sighed, "We need to get her checked out by a doctor." he finally conceded, figuring they might have some idea what was wrong with her. He fervently wished that Zan or Red his unit's medics were here, but they weren't and he'd have to make do with an 'ordinary' doctor, just great!

**What's going to happen to Max and the baby? Tune in next week to find out!**

**Thanks for all the great reviews, I'm so honoured, Id' give you all cookies, but ya know, that would be a bit difficult, so just imagine I did 'kay?**

**Anyway, if the details of the escape or anything seem a bit off, its not that I'm ignorant or anything (though I could be that as well!) it's that I'm changing things to fit in with my plot.**

**Anyway enough talking, please review, it'll only take a second, and I'd really appreciate your opinions!**

**Thanks!**

**XXX**


	11. Dr Carr's Office

**What Was There All Along**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, except any OCs.**

Once Max's seizure had finally seemed to end. Alec gently helped her to her feet, using his arms to brace her, when even once she was upright she had trouble maintaining her balance.

After this little fiasco Max was relatively quick to acquiesce to Alec's offer to take her home, she may have not wanted to show him weakness, but the fact was she was too exhausted to put up much of a fight anyway. Besides, even Max had to admit that back there Alec had really come through for her, if he hadn't been there… Max shuddered, she didn't even want to think about what might have happened had anyone else come across her when she was that out of it. Alec had, once again, saved her neck, sure she would have done the same for him, but it was just so strange to think of Alec taking charge and taking care of her, though he did seem surprisingly good at it. Had he perhaps had practice at this she didn't know about?

"Damn is that boy a mystery!" thought Max furiously, allowing herself to gaze up guardedly at his face, from her awkward position leaning back into his arms (embarrassingly she couldn't seem to find the strength to stand up on her own even now). She tuned out the conversation around her, OC agreeing to tell Normal that Max was ill, and Alec was taking her home to rest, whilst also agreeing to cover for them with Sketchy and the other messengers, and instead looked at Alec, she just couldn't figure him out. She had thought that she had his personality pegged, before the whole Rachel thing. But now, with everything that had happened recently he seemed to be constantly surprising her, forcing her to re- evaluate him and she didn't like it. It was so much easier when she could just think of him as a jackass and dismiss him but now, she found herself constantly wondering about his motivations…

XXX

Alec meanwhile was relieved to see Max looking slightly better, she had really scared him earlier, having that many bad seizures so close together was never a good sign, and he was still really worried about her… Damn, had she ever got under his skin!

It was with these thoughts on his mind, that Alec made the inevitable call to Dr Carr… He was surprised that Max didn't try to stop him, she was right there, literally in his arms, could hear every word he spoke into his cell, but appeared to be too out of it to care. This was itself was very not good, X5 were trained from babyhood to maintain constant vigilance, therefore dropping your guard and tuning out on the world, for any reason, as Max appeared to be doing now, was never a good sign, and was usually an indication of extreme pain or exhaustion. Max must have been even worse off than Alec had assumed if she was being this docile and non responsive, neither word being something that most people would **ever** associate with Max.

For his part Alec tried desperately not to think of the implications of what was going on with Max, as he explained the situation and arranged for an appointment with Dr Carr, though he couldn't help but keep playing the 'worse case scenarios' on a continuous loop in his head. Max was after all, someone he cared about, and his track record for protecting the people that he cared about was not at all good, as Rachel and Maiya knew all too well…

Finishing his call Alec then guided the still pale and subdued, though at least partially mobile, Max towards the exit, and away from the curious eyes of their fellow messengers…"Looks like the gossip mill will be working overtime again!" thought Alec disgustedly as he noticed the curious stares directed towards them, but at least Max was too out of it to notice, and find any inventive and scene causing ways to deal with them, "Although," he mused, "Maxie's comebacks are always fun to watch!"

XXX

It took the two transgenics an inordinate amount of time to reach Dr Carr's office, Max being in no fit state to ride her bike, meaning that they were forced to backtrack to Alec's (on foot, with Alec having to practically carry Max) in order to grab his motorcycle, to make the journey to Sector 12 and the doctor's office, but finally they arrived.

XXX

Arriving at he doctor's office, Max felt her innate dislike for any medical environment swiftly rising, one thing which all Manticore alumni seemed to have in common was an extreme aversion to doctors… go figure! But having Alec at her side did wonders to calm her frazzled nerves, and convince her instincts, which were screaming at her to bolt, that this really was a 'safe' environment, or at least it was as long as Alec stayed to watch her back.

Unfortunately Max also saw the necessity for this visit, she knew that having as many seizures as she'd had over the last two days was in no way normal, even for X5, or good, and she really did need to get herself checked out. But her realisation of why she needed to be there did not do much to stem her rapidly rising panic at being in such a threatening environment when she was really in no condition to defend herself…

Seemingly sensing her thoughts, not to mention, probably scenting her terror, Alec reacted swiftly, taking Max's small hand in his larger one, and squeezing it firmly, reminding her that she was not alone, as she crossed the threshold of the office and told the receptionist who she was so that she could get in to see the doctor. It successfully stemmed Max's panic, helping her base instincts to realise that there was someone strong enough around to protect her, who had no intention of leaving her side until this was all over, effectively calming her and making her feel secure even in an environment she perceived as being hostile.

With Alec's hand still comfortingly entwined with her own Max allowed herself to be lead further into the threatening building towards the office, not even blanching when her sensitive nose caught the distinctive odour of medical bleach, a smell which to this day still assaulted her in her worst nightmares. She knew that he realised what this place was doing to her, and though she was in no condition to do so anyway, it was refreshing to not have to put up a blasé front with him, like she did with everyone else every time she entered any kind of medical facility. She knew that he got it so she didn't even have to try and explain it to him, hell this place was probably having a worse effect on him than her. He had, after all, been in Manticore ten years longer than her, not to mention that he had spent a fair portion of that time in psy-ops and re-indoctrination, how he had ever survived those Max would never know…

Reaching the door to Dr Carr's office the receptionist turned to return to the desk, leaving Max and Alec to stare blankly at the door. It was clear that neither particularly wanted to go through it, but after a final comforting squeeze of her hand from Alec, Max steeled her courage and opened the door, finding herself suddenly face to face with a very worried looking Dr Carr.

XXX

"Max come in, have a seat!" welcomed Dr Carr, his eyes raking over his patient in concern, noting the deep bags under her eyes, the pale skin pallor and the look of all round exhaustion as she drooped wearily into a chair, a concerned young man, presumably the same one he had spoken to on the phone, hovering in support behind her and clearly casing the room, looking for… escape roots? Nah! Why on earth would he want to do that?

It was interesting that she had allowed him to come in with her though. Sam didn't know Max well, but he knew her well enough to know that she was an intensely private person, she wouldn't let just anyone come to a doctor's appointment with her. Last time, she had barely tolerated Cindy's presence, and she was her best friend, but this guy she seemed totally at ease with, able to drop her guard in his presence with apparently no problem…interesting.

"I understand you've been experiencing some severe seizures the past couple of days, and that this is somewhat unusual?" he questioned, deciding to get going with the professional side of things, before he got too carried away with reading into the situation, noting her nod of confirmation at his assessment.

"Yeah, they started last night, kept me awake all night." she sighed, laughing bitterly as she raked a hand through her somewhat limp hair, "I figured they'd be gone by morning if I took my meds, seizures haven't been that bad recently…" she trailed off, not looking anyone in the eye. For the first time, Carr saw actual fear in the brave young transgenic's eyes, whatever was going on it had her really frightened, and Sam could not think of much that would ever frighten the irrepressible Max.

At this, the young man behind her, dropped into the chair next to her, and took her hand, in a gesture of support…which Max didn't brush off…interesting…Max then sighed, apparently in frustration with herself for showing weakness and continued, after regaining her equilibrium, "But this morning they were back, worse than ever, I don't understand," she admitted, biting her lip in frustration, "The dosage I took should have been enough to stop the seizures and restore my seratonin levels, but it didn't work. I don't know what's going on, but I don't think this is doing any good for the baby…"

'The baby', at this Sam actually raised his eyebrows in surprise, had Max actually mentioned the baby in front of this guy, when she had practically sworn him to secrecy about telling anyone? Now this was really getting interesting…

Catching his look, Max seemingly read his mind and answered simply, "He's the father." gesturing towards the young man, sprawled catlike in the chair next to her, and still tightly clutching her hand. "Ah, so this is the elusive Alec." thought Sam with curiosity.

This 'Alec' was interesting to say the least, about 6 foot, handsome, with dark blond hair and green eyes, but very young, no older than perhaps 21 or 22, only a year or so older than Max. But there was something about him, something hidden… He was certainly more than met the eye, if the way he had cased the joint earlier had been any indication, or the way he was staring at him now, in a fierce evaluating sort of way, practically feral in its intensity. A predator clearly promising death if Sam couldn't find a way to help Max. He gulped involuntarily, this guy was really not someone he wanted to mess with, Sam got that message loud and clear… This guy, this X5, could kill him easily, and probably without giving it a second thought. He really pitied Logan at having to compete with him…

"So do you know what's going on?" questioned Alec, speaking for the first time and staring at Sam in silent challenge his eyes radiating the kind of power and authority that you really didn't want to mess with, whilst paradoxically his hand was moving in a soothing gentle figure of eight on Max's back, gently calming the distressed woman as he spoke.

"I'll need to do some blood tests to be sure, but I'd surmise that all this is, is an indication that you need to up your Tryptophan dosage for the duration of your pregnancy." admitted Sam, fairly confident in his assessment, before continuing his explanation, "I take it that the seizures are common to all X5 and that you have them as well?" questioned Sam, seeing Alec's nod in confirmation of his guesswork, "Well then it makes sense that since the condition is genetic, the baby would have it as well and will need to get doses of Tryptophan too. Upping your current dosage by half should do it." concluded Sam thoughtfully.

At this, the couple before him seemed immensely relieved, the tension seeming to escape Max instantaneously, whilst Alec toned down his glare somewhat, "And the seizures won't have done the baby any harm?" questioned Max, seemingly concerned by the thought.

"There is no reason why they should have done, you took enough medication to stop them and that should have negated any problems they could have caused." but noting her still concerned gaze, he sighed and continued, "but I suppose if you're really concerned I could bring in an ultrasound and do a scan for you in a few days to prove it, I'm sorry but I don't have the equipment right now…" he conceded hoping to alleviate some of her worry.

He then proceeded to take a blood sample, which he intended to personally check, just to be safe, before telling them that that was all he could do for them for today.

Smiling Max, moved to stand, albeit somewhat unsteadily, "Thank you doctor." she admitted gratefully.

"Yeah thanks Doc." chimed in Alec good humouredly, though the gratitude in his voice was also plain to hear.

With that, the two transgenics turned to leave and Sam was left alone to ponder the rather interesting turn that this afternoon had taken.

Despite what Max had said to him previously about Alec being a 'heat mistake' seeing them together seemed to negate this possibility. They were obviously close, he was very protective of her, and she trusted him, whether she could see it or not. Sam shook his head dejectedly, just where did Logan fit into all this? This was one messy situation!

XXX

After the doctor's appointment, Alec took Max back to her apartment on his motorcycle. Normally she would have objected to the gesture, not to mention the over protective, aggressive vibes that Alec had been positively radiating, earlier in the doctor's office, but right now Max was just too tired and shell shocked to care…

As a rule she really hated the seizures, and having them generally freaked her out, and, right now, she was absolutely terrified by the damage they could have done to her baby, … so much as she was loathe to admit it, having Alec around to deal with things was a weight off her mind, not that she would ever tell the cocky bastard that of course!

Sighing in frustration at her own weakness Max climbed unsteadily off the bike, and, with a helping hand from Alec, walked unsteadily up to her apartment, all the while thinking, that if he ever mentioned this to anyone, she would put the smack down on his ass so bad that he wouldn't be able to walk for a week. She was still, after all, not happy showing weakness to anyone, even him… Apparently old habits died hard, especially ones as ingrained as that…

Reaching the apartment door, he grudgingly turned to leave, but in a moment of panic Max reached out, pulling his unresisting body flush up against her. Was he just about to walk out and leave her after all of that? Looking into his warm green eyes, she tried to hide the panic she knew would be looming in hers and plead with him without words, trying to say in a look what she would never voice to anyone, not even him… 'Don't leave. **Stay**.'

She knew she was being weak, but she was passed the point of caring, she absolutely could **not **face the next few hours alone. Her body felt like it had been put through a mangle, limbs weak and jelly like, body battered and exhausted. She hadn't slept in far too long and she knew it, what with the seizures, morning sickness, and stress over the baby, as well as all her 'normal' everyday dramas she just couldn't. It wasn't easy for her to completely 'switch off' and relax in hostile territory, and according to her, unfortunately still active, Manticore training, any place without her unit to watch her back was hostile territory. Since her freaky, hormone addled, brain had decided that Alec was part of her 'unit' she might as well make the most of it, hence why she wanted him there….And if she had really convinced herself that that was the only reason she wanted him there then she was an even better liar than she gave herself credit for…

XXX

In shock Alec allowed himself to be lead into Max's apartment, 'invited' in for what could probably considered the first time ever, for there was no mistaking the beseeching look in Max's dark brown eyes. She was afraid, and she wanted **him **there with her to protect her, watch her back while she slept, she was clearly beginning to recognize him as 'safe', her unit… and it warmed his heart to know.

Leading him deeper into her apartment Max took him straight into her room, removing her shoes, pulling back the covers on the bed and snuggling in the duvet, an invitation again clear in her eyes. Wordlessly he removed his shoes and slipped in the bed behind her arms moving to encircle her waist, hands resisting gently on the gentle swell of her abdomen, barely visible through her clothes, that was their child...

Alec knew that anything he said would break this truce that they seem to have called, so he remained silent, content to hold and comfort her, and wonder what he had ever done to deserve a chance with someone like her when he had screwed up so many things in his life…

XXX

With these thoughts they both drifted to sleep, both attempting to get over the shock of the day, and prepare for whatever tomorrow might bring…

**I'm baaack!**

**AS exams are over, I'm absolutely exhausted, and am now anxiously awaiting to see how badly I've failed, that last History paper was an absolute bitch, I kid you not, it was horrible, add to that the other History paper that afternoon and the 3 hour long Chemistry exams that morning to the Statistics paper the next day and I've been on stress overload all week, you are very lucky I wrote at all, I seriously need a holiday!**

**Anyway to X5 459 I'd love to read your fic, now that I actually have a second to spare, but when I looked for it before I couldn't find it, maybe I'm just being dappy, but if you left a signed review to trace back to it, or some kind of address for the story it would be most appreciated!**

**Gracias! XXX**

**Thank you sooo much for all the great reviews! I really don't deserve so many nice comments, but I love hearing what people think about the fic so I know what I'm doing right and wrong, so please continue!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Now review!**

**XXX**


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